Author: Jackie Grunlond
Number of Pages: 198
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Review:
Finally, someone, who actually understands what it's like to grow up in a world full of high standards, stereotypes, and things that are just flat out wrong.
Be Free is a book about redeeming yourself. Its about healing your past wounds and rediscovering self love. It's about not having a perfect Instagram feed, but showing your own insecurities. The author Jackie Grunloud goes from getting blacked out every single night, to discovering who God is. Jackie doesn't sugar coat her life or hold anything back. She tells her unfiltered story about a young teenage girl who was just looking for love.
This book is unique, because of how real it is. The author mentions topics she believes people might lash on her, or disagree for how truthful she is being, but does it because she believes if she doesn't talk about it no one else will. In a sense, it's a self-help book, without being one. Its a breath of fresh air. It's a reminder to take a step back and admire your life for what it is, and stop trying to abide by the norms of society. I found this to be extremely unique because no one ever talks about the harsh realities of social media or the pressure other individuals put on each other to be a certain way. This won't be the prettiest book you've ever read, but it'll be the most real book you've ever read.
The authors writing style is very straight forward and to the point. There's no true style; she just writes a story and tells her life for what it is. The tone shifts from a depressing tone, to a casual/formal tone, to an upbeat, happy tone. Her journey is all over the place and will take you on a roller coaster ride full of emotions and realizations.
The most memorable moment I had while reading this book was in the beginning when she was talking about her Instagram feed. She felt it was necessary to portray this perfect lifestyle that "everyone wanted" even though she was experiencing depression, and crying herself to sleep every night. On all aspects of her social media platforms, she looked like she was "living her best life," but in reality, she wasn't. I think most girls in society, including me, can relate to this because everyone always wants someone else to want their life. We spend so much time posing for the perfect picture and creating the perfect caption, so we appear to have it all figured out when we don't. To me, this was a big thing, because all the times I scroll through Instagram thinking I wish my life were as good as some other person, I never took into consideration the propaganda behind every perfect Instagram photo.
I would recommend this book to all female ladies out there, but not so much to the males. This book is geared towards the things girls feel every day- insecurity, imperfectness, and pressure. I don't believe boys will be able to relate to this book or enjoy it. I extra recommend this book to Christian girls, because it does talk a lot about God, and the holy spirit. Even if your not Chrisitan, or have an association with any kind of church, I wouldn't let that discourage you from reading this book. I just personally believe having some background on the Bible, will take this book to the level it took me too.
In a society that is so influenced and dictated by what we see on social media, we need to read books like these to come back to reality. We should not live our lives through our phone screens, there is a world of opportunity waiting for you once you look up.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing to see that those insecurities are common, and that there are multiple girls out there who experience the same things.
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