#LizzieReads
Oh my gosh.
This is perhaps the quickest ‘review’ I have written on my blog so far – and not for the right reasons…
You might be thinking of buying Holly Willoughby’s latest book, Reflections, for a friend or family member or whoever this Christmas. But let me tell you, upon reflection and my brief experience reading this – be careful (I originally wrote ‘don’t’ but thought it to be too harsh, so I will let you make your own mind up).
It is admirable that it was created through voice notes made by Willoughby as she is dyslexic.
Regardless, I should have known from the title that this is a reflection of things Holly has learned from beauty and things said by others. More fool me for thinking this was an indefinite autobiography, but from what I read (72 pages of 263, most which are blank pages), I found there wasn’t a whole lot that was new that we haven’t heard before from other people.
She refers to society’s expectations on everyone, including women, as well as mini chapters on the following:
– What beauty means –
– Detachment –
– The racing mind –
– Anger –
– Guilt –
– Control –
– Reconnecting –
– Intuition –
– Embracing individuality –
– Role models –
– Beauty and sexuality –
– Bodies –
– Feeling beautiful first –
– Memories of make-up magic –
– Make-up as a ritual –
– Beauty tips and tricks –
‘I try this, you can too, otherwise get professional help.’
These are quite flippant things to say as these aren’t always the best solutions for people: they are still finding the thing that works best for them. I’m not blaming Holly at all: I’m just frustrated at myself for thinking this was entirely an autobiography when it seems to be more of a self-help book and a written form of therapy of her own.
I cannot remember the last time I did not finish a book and this sadly fell into that category. It seems a pretty quick and easy book to read thanks to the pretty pages, blank pages and pictures, but not even that could persuade me to continue.
It is easy for me to say all this when I haven’t read the whole book, so you can stop reading from here if you wish. I guess I’ve found out about the book from seeing her appear on TV, as well as discuss it on her podcast appearances (Emma Gannon’s Ctrl Alt Delete episode is a good one).
A lot of the content isn’t new and has been discussed by other people. I’d say this book is aimed at die-hard Holly fans, including mothers and older women in particular who can relate. It’s such a shame because I do like her on ITV’s This Morning where she is a great presenter, however on this occasion, the viewing just wasn’t quite to my rating.
Rating – 1/5
Genre – self-help, auto-biography
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