If you’re a serious person trust me skip this book.

This is a rage rant. It’s what happened after I kept sticking with it listening to this book - eventually you snap!
I know it’s her first time being heart broken, and it’s upsetting and i know people can get obsessed with their own Breakup pain becuase it can all feel momentous, a breakthrough for breakups as a whole, poetic. But oh my god! This entire book is her being enamored by this experience of feelings she’s having and letting it seduce her into the feeling of deep deep specialness. But most of us have done this already, multiple times! Imagine thinking we should alert the media because we are grieving?? Cause of a breakup? Who you think you are, Joan Didion? And if you’re not, what can you add to a universal human condition that we need and that Joan Didion hasn’t said already. About finding her dead husband, not being dumped by a boring man.

I have had my heart broken and I don’t know if I’ll ever recover, and I don’t want to listen to you try to rebound with a loser douche bag because I already went through my 18 year old broken heart leading to my finding myself under some obvious creep because they held some delusion of a promise. And yeah the body keeps the score of cptsd. Duh. I’m 43 now. There’s a reason I don’t want to get my mirroring from 18 year olds, or frankly the glaringly unwise. Because they think I want to get my info about grief, trauma, neuroscience, physical health, love, redemption from a book where a peppy self obsessed, self-enamored, chronically “adorable” divorcé talks endlessly about themselves and their divorce! And the audacity too. I mean walking with a group of sex trafficking survivors and relating their momentous recovery to her own journey is unbelievable! After telling these women’s stories the author needs to think real deep cause she’s very moved by these “strong women” and they helped her realized her job now is figuring out what autonomy is for her, reclaiming her body as her own, her SELF as her own, since she’s been married for so long so wasn’t a one but a two, but now she’s a one, and that’s new, who am I? It’s just like these young women who were trafficked, jailed, addicted, abused from day one .
I basically just skip the entire book until she gets to a scientist. I thought I was buying a science book, but man, the science/girl talk personal essay ration is like 20/80, and that’s generous. It’s mostly just her being that one drunk friend who you gave to fully cut ties with because they just go on and on about their relationships and their breakthroughs and new revelations about themselves and their old relationship - yeah no thanks bye

13 people found this helpful

NOT HELPFUL

I wanted to finish this book. I really did. As someone who's lived with heartbreak of one sort or another my entire life, I wanted to learn more about it. I got halfway thru this endless diatribe of scary statistics about how much sooner I'm likely to die (and how much sicker I'm likely to be before I do) before I threw in the proverbial towel. I live alone, and not by choice. It's the way things have worked out. I already know full good and well that I'm lonely and varying degrees of miserable without a companion. And now, thanks to Florence Williams, I know that I am evidently more miserable and doomed than even I knew. Thanks. Thanks a bunch, lady.

9 people found this helpful

So annoying

I really did try to listen to this story and thought I would learn something interesting. I could not finish it. The author really got on my nerves- she is extremely entitled and privileged, flying off all over the world to give talks and interview "scientists" (who are using lab animals to assess the impact of loneliness- really?) and other folks as she tries to make sense of her divorce. She has 2 wonderful children and a dog but oh my- how she suffers. Her life is nothing like that of many divorced women who lose their economic base and are involved in custody battles. Then she gets involved with a disgusting predatory man- when he asks if he's a bad person, her response is no, but he indeed takes terrible advantage of many vulnerable women in his "harem". Please skip this book. She has nothing to offer to most divorced women. I returned it.

5 people found this helpful

Take this journey with the author!

I highly recommend this revealing journey through divorce and the life altering changes that a woman goes through. It was full of enlightenment and thoughtful research. Loved the live recordings throughout and the various ways she explored healing. I am not divorced but could definitely relate to her story.

4 people found this helpful

Absolutely wonderful content and presentation

Florence Williams has outdone herself (Nature Fix being one of my favorite books)! I will listen to this book again and recommend it to everyone. A timely find for me as I reflect on my own heartbreak stories and the importance of nature’s ability to heal and connect us all. The narration was not a typical “author reading book” format. I loved the podcast style- it was like listening to a well done documentary - with its music, audio journal clips. I didn’t want to stop listening! Thank you!

4 people found this helpful

one of the best audiobooks I've ever heard

I usually listen to fiction but Heartbreak was one the most compelling, fascinating and often thrilling listens I've enjoyed and surprisingly so. Mixing in sound from her audio journal, interviews and even her dates, with wonderful prose, Williams takes us on a quest and a heroine's journey to understand her own heartbreak on the end of her 30 year relationship in the context of the universal. She meets with biologists, psychologists, takes a wilderness trek with sex trafficking survivors, takes magic mushrooms, solos down a desert river for weeks, explores the human experience of rejection, awe, loneliness, and somehow with her wonderful prose, humor, warmth and wisdom makes it into a thrilling page turning romp about what actually happens when a heart breaks and how it heals. This book is a gift.

3 people found this helpful

Soul Punching

I love the intimacy and truth. Thank you for taking us on your healing journey.

2 people found this helpful

Trying to finish this book was murder.

I found the advice and anecdotes more depressing than the book. Saying single people die sooner than married people is an over generalization. To make a statement like that is a slap in the face to all of the successful singles. Can't and won't finish this book.

1 person found this helpful

Brilliant

Wow. This book perfectly suited my soul. It gave me the data I needed & spared me the work of having to sort out all the science. Having been wrecked by heartbreak, I needed a story & a few stats to inspire me to hang in there & push forward. I will probably listen to this again in a few months. Only thing I’d change, is more shared time, stories & insights, in the Great outdoors. I’d swap less blood work/ bio marker talk for more river & wilderness encounters.

Just what I needed

I wanted a little more vocal dynamics, she's much more animated in her natural conversation. Otherwise, these statistics and mechanisms have been incredibly helpful to me. Know that this process takes years, but you can lessen the impact.
Not strictly for the outdoorsy, don't let that stop you! Good luck and peace on your journey 🤍🖤🤍