Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? Review

E-Book, 368 Pages
Non-Fiction/ Psychology
By: Julie Smith
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

I don’t have a TikTok account and although this may be a weird way to start a review, I am saying it because apparently the author is a TikTok star with many followers. I stumbled upon this when I was browsing through Edelweiss for ARCs and the title caught my attention so I saved it as future reads and got it when it was published. This was my February’s Non-Fiction book of the month.

The book is a self-help one revolving around mental health and ways to cope with every day challenges. It is divided into main parts -each discussing a certain topic- with multiple chapters in each part. The chapters are short for the most part with a summary at the end of each chapter.

I read this because I wanted to learn more about mental health in general and specifically anxiety. I liked Dr. Smith’s writing style because she’s realistic and she does not like to be overly positive. She even criticizes some of the common advice given in real life and social media which can be more harmful than helpful.

The book sometimes only scratch the surface of important topics but I kind of understand that given that it is directed to the general population and it is not an academic book. Some of the chapters were very short, they felt like a summary of something larger and yet they had the bullet points summary at the end because that’s just the way the book is formatted. I think it could have been better if the summaries were at the end of each part rather than chapter with the most important things included.

Summary: I enjoyed the book and thought it was helpful at the same time which is what I am looking for when I am reading a non-fiction book. I believe the format could have been a bit better but the writing and information given were clear and interesting. The author is not preachy and is very realistic. There are some points that could have been expanded but I am okay with what he have. I don’t think it is a life changing book but it can certainly help!