Ella Ella

Extremely powerful read

Revisado: 03-14-17

This should be mandatory reading for everyone in America- regardless of weight or degree of self confidence. As a fat person new to body positivity and trying to encourage it in my friends and family, I found a lot in this book that resonated with me. While Whitney has had considerable privilege in her life, she acknowledges it and owns it. Her understanding of that makes her that much more endearing. If you're not a fat person, you have certainly seen fat people, and probably know fat people. This book should be read by you too. The harmful attitudes that our culture (and others!) has surrounding weight are important for everyone to understand and resist. I laughed at parts of this book and I cried, especially at difficult parts towards the beginning and at the very end. The book is read by the author, not a professional narrator, but give her a chance. I was used to her voice after a couple of minutes and she doesn't try to do any type of jarring "voice acting". It's like having a long, but one-sided conversation with a dear friend.

I have never seen her television show, so this review was my first real exposure to Whitney. I'm so glad her voice is out there and I'm looking forward to future books!

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esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

Probably better in print

Revisado: 06-26-16

This book is less of an in-depth expose on the inner workings of Scientology and more of an account of how the author was blocked from being able to do much of a real investigation at all, stalked, disparaged, and subjected to intimidating behavior. While that story is compelling and a nice compliment to books written by ex-Scientologists, it didn't translate well to audio format. Sweeney doesn't often distinguish between voices, which makes the frequent interviews and conversations in which people interrupt and talk over each other nearly indecipherable. I can't recommend the audio version for this reason.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Highly recommended

Revisado: 06-07-16

This book was incredibly moving and I couldn't put it down until I was done. While I'd seen and read other books and programs on Scientology, I don't think I've ever seen such detailed information about the life of a child in the Sea Org anywhere else. I definitely cried at some parts and found the story gripping and dramatic. No issues with the narration, though it was nothing spectacular. Definitely get this if you're interested at all in Scientology or cults.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Get the abridged version

Revisado: 02-18-16

I get now why there is a shorter version of this book. This really is quite poorly written. I don't care what 10 items the main character bought at the grocery store or what every t-shirt the titular character wears has written on it. It's unimportant and tedious. The mystery is only moderately interesting and the few scenes of interest depict sexual violence in a graphic, which I found too repulsive to enjoy. Your mileage may vary. I should have gotten the abridged version which I can only assume cut out all of the unnecessary yet endless descriptions of what everyone ate for breakfast, etc. The only good thing about this book is the narration. Vance is exceptional and kept me from putting it down before the mystery was solved.

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I thought it was pretty funny

Revisado: 06-21-15

It probably would have been funnier if I hadn't heard some of the jokes before in his standup or if I had kids, but I still liked it enough to finish it in one day.

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