Book Review and GIVEAWAY - Advice I Ignored: Stories and Wisdom from a Formerly Depressed Teen, by Ruby Walker {ends 5/23}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

I’m trying to be a light.

I can’t do everything perfectly. But I am good for good. Most of the time I can feel this energy shaking my lymph nodes. I know who I am: loved, empathetic, excitable, forgiving. I want to write the stories I needed before. I’m trying to be the friend I needed when I felt completely alone. I’m glad, somehow, that I felt all those terrible things and stumbled my way out. Only for having been there do I know where my little world needs light.

Being a light means being kind when it isn’t required, good when nobody can see, and refusing to accept suffering as the status quo. I’m nothing like I was before: I let the things I care about take hold of my whole body.

Yet sometimes, when I get sad, I feel like I’m there again, a scared fourteen-year-old who can’t tell anyone she’s depressed.

Within the first few pages of the book, reading Ruby Walker’s words feels like talking to a friend. She’s been there, and now she wants to help others through it all.

Official synopsis:

When Ruby Walker was fifteen, she went from a numb, silent, miserable high school dropout to a joyous loudmouth in one year flat. Advice I Ignored answers the question everyone's been asking her since: What happened? In ten illustrated chapters, you'll learn how to:

• get out from under self-hatred
• gain a sense of free will
• deal with failure without falling apart
• create your way through an existential crisis
• use exercise to beg your brain for endorphins
• have an identity beyond "sad"
• and more!

Full of embarrassing stories, honest advice, and fierce hope, Advice I Ignored is a self-help book for people who hate help. And themselves.

This was a great book. The chapters are each broken neatly into three parts—an essay of good advice, a personal story, and simple instructions to implement the advice. Interspersed with these parts were illustrations that added to the emotion expressed in the mental health struggle.

The author’s voice is casual, friendly, and likable. She admits that a lot of the advice sounds overwhelming and possibly ridiculous to someone struggling, but the instructions really break it down as much as the reader needs. Is your first action step today sitting up in bed? That’s okay. She wants to start where the reader is, and hopefully show them the way she found back to the life they are meant to live.

While the book is targeted at teens with depression, it’s really a great manual about finding and acting on being your true self. Each of the chapter titles aren’t just advice for teens, but perhaps the secrets to living a contented life at any age. Overall, I’d give this book 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it be read, consumed, and acted on slowly. Read each chapter, story, and suggestions thoughtfully, and let them speak to your heart.

{click here to purchase}

Becki Bayley is a wife, mom, and human being. She likes reading, crafting, playing the flute and enjoying her own company. Find out more of her adventures at SweetlyBSquared.com.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Advice I Ignored!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Saturday, May 23rd, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be notified via email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Advice I Ignored: Stories and Wisdom from a Formerly Depressed Teen, by Ruby Walker