I have now resurfaced after binge reading this book for the last 24 hours (with some sleep and work in between, I promise).

And what do I make of it- Gilbert is her mesmerising self, except for a few moments, where I was a bit annoyed, I enjoyed the book, but it is almost hard to believe her ‘recovered’ version after she reveals her dark side. One wonders if this is not all part of another type of charm offensive.

Also, I kind of was annoyed by the continuous need to tell us how amazing and unique Rayya was — it seemed like Gilbert needed to tell us, to make herself feel better for all the crazy stuff she had done for Rayya. Had Rayya not been amazing, would Gilbert’s obsessive behaviour be less interesting to us, less believable? I wonder.

Finally, one thing that happens to me with certain books lately is that if I’ve read enough author interviews and heard enough podcast conversations with the author, I feel like I almost don’t need to read the book anymore and I was somehow left with this feeling here. [in full confession, every podcast conversation with Gilbert I heard, I found her utterly convincing- she is charming as fuck and I feel like it would be easy to join a cult that she started].

Ok, so final verdict: I don’t regret reading it, but was not blown away.