Anonymous wrote:Jen’s book was at my local bookstore this week- I thought the release date was the 23rd. I only had 15 minutes so I read through as much as I could.
She talked about Brandon taking his affair partner on public dates I think around the lake house and also of taking her to the lake house. She wrote about the incident with her teacher who called her domineering and how her dad drove down to the school to talk to the woman after Jen came home crying. She also talked about Caleb telling her that he learned about porn at summer church camp when he was 12. Now that I find a bit suspicious.
Her writing is like a garden-variety contemporary memoirist with the wry humor and occasional f bombs. Not Jamie Wright-level profanity but up there.
No way am I going to buy the book but I want to read more. It wasn’t as off putting as FFF, for certain.

You go on and on about how awful it is, say you’re not going to buy it, but say you want to read more. Do you even hear yourself?

Awake has barely gotten out of bed 😅 brilliant.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Awake one week since pub

Best Sellers Rank
#33 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

I just checked, and as of this morning it's down to #46.

Jen's publicist did an amazing job, no doubt. Tons of paid press, media appearances. Unfortunately it hasn't translated to book sales as there doesn't seem to be much of an appetite for
another post divorce girl boss manifesto. Especially from someone who isn't famous anymore. If Jen had an angle like I Was Raised In A Cult it might be different. But no one is buying that Jen was raised in a cult. Dad was a pastor, she build up her own church.

Jen will get to say she was again on the New York Times Bestseller List for non-fiction so prepare yourself for the hollow bragging but most of that is pre-launch bulk buying book club stuff.

Don't fool yourself, though. Awake has barely gotten out of bed.

Anonymous wrote:Awake one week since pub

Best Sellers Rank
#33 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

I just checked, and as of this morning it's down to #46.

Anonymous wrote:Awake one week since pub

Best Sellers Rank
#33 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

I think she got decent press for this book however - I don't think her publisher marketed this book in a way that makes it stand out from others of this ilk. What makes this book a must-read? Nothing. It's really a book only for the people who know who she is. I'm willing to bet that I can mention her name to every single person in my office and no one has ever heard of her. I'll skim through it at the library but I'm not giving her my money for it.

Anonymous wrote:Well. I am glad I read the book (listened to the audiobook with all its extras, actually—including interviews with people mentioned in the book) because this forum made it seem like a gross disaster.

I found it measured and sincere. Funny at times and bittersweet. You don’t have to like her or agree with her deconstruction to recognize it as a well written book that is going to speak to a LOT of us—especially if you did grow up in a youth group in the 90s as a girl. Maybe some of you did not.

No one is calling it a gross disaster and I think most people on here agree she's a good writer. What makes her a good writer is her ability to connect with people. However, the veil is lifted when you realize she's a grifter and this is all a schtick for her. Like how she writes an entire book about paring down and living less but in reality this is a person who has to pay for dumpsters to throw out her excess. She's just so phony and writes to whatever is going to sell for her. I'm sure this is the year she would have put out a book whether she was divorced or not. If she was still with Brandon she'd just write a menopause manifesto. She's just not...sincere. And even though I grew up in a very conservative environment attending a Southern Baptist youth group and Christian private college, I went on to be pretty left of center. But there's actually something about seeing Jen and Tyler that make me want to go back to the Republican side. They're just so clutch your pearls, crying into their phone camera, over the top.

No one here is saying that Awake was a gross disaster, or that Jen is a disaster. She is a good writer, and many of us here were fans of her writing at one point. Many of us here bought multiple books of hers (I bought two of her Bible studies, Seven, and Interrupted, plus I was on the ARC team for Brandon's book), so she has always had a solid book fanbase. I also paid to see her give a talk at a local church for a weekend women's retreat.
I feel her relationship to Tyler is one of the fakest parts of her new life, and she is delusional in calling him her boyfriend. In no universe is he her boyfriend.

One of the US weekly articles came up on my fb feed, and in one of the comments, a gal mentions how great Tyler was as her Comcast guy (?)- is he working for them between booking acting jobs and litter box ads?

Ugh, the thought of Tyler riding Jen's coattails even more makes me cringe. In my skimming of the book, he was barely mentioned- did I miss something?

Awake one week since pub

Best Sellers Rank
#33 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Anonymous wrote:I'm just here to say the most recent rap about big sass and Jen was freaking hilarious and took some real skill, and that was rude of whoever it was to blast it!

Meh... writing of any kind takes some skill, but this isn't exactly groundbreaking work. It's just, I dunno, okay?

I'm just here to say the most recent rap about big sass and Jen was freaking hilarious and took some real skill, and that was rude of whoever it was to blast it!

Anonymous wrote:Well. I am glad I read the book (listened to the audiobook with all its extras, actually—including interviews with people mentioned in the book) because this forum made it seem like a gross disaster.

I found it measured and sincere. Funny at times and bittersweet. You don’t have to like her or agree with her deconstruction to recognize it as a well written book that is going to speak to a LOT of us—especially if you did grow up in a youth group in the 90s as a girl. Maybe some of you did not.

I don't think anyone has made the book out to be a "gross disaster." If anything most of the comments are on the positive side with a couple of mentions of her sounding relatable and the major negative being how the book jumps all over the place instead of following a timeline.

I don't think I'd go so far as to say Jen is a "gross disaster" either. I think she's fake and annoying but I can't really point to an influencer that isn't fake, at least to some degree.

I did grow up in purity culture. It was part of the personality of the church I went to and although my parents were Bible believing fundies, they weren't as zealous in their views about those kinds of things at home. They'd sit and nod about how women should wear dresses and not trousers when the pastor thundered from the pulpit but I wore jeans and shorts outside of church. I had one bathing suit for church camp and another for swimming outside of church activities. I chose to approach modesty differently as an adult and with my daughter and I'm happy to see women advance as they have but fifty-something year old me isn't crying about the patriarchy and how demeaning it felt to be told to wear a shirt over my granny one piece when the boys were bare chested.

It's the "this is my marketing schtick" approach that I find distasteful and honestly, she's just not believable with this new relationship'

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well. I am glad I read the book (listened to the audiobook with all its extras, actually—including interviews with people mentioned in the book) because this forum made it seem like a gross disaster.

I found it measured and sincere. Funny at times and bittersweet. You don’t have to like her or agree with her deconstruction to recognize it as a well written book that is going to speak to a LOT of us—especially if you did grow up in a youth group in the 90s as a girl. Maybe some of you did not.

I did not. And I think that’s why the slam on 90’s purity culture runs so hollow for me. I, and a lot of my friends, experienced the harms from the opposite view point. Jen and her entire coven all seem to act as if “free sex with whoever, whenever” as a TEENAGER, is the healthier route for life. I can assure you, it is not.

Thank you. So much this. When I was in the more progressive church environment, where a lot of the women who had grown up in the church were complaining about purity culture, a friend and mentor who was far more sympathetic to the deconstruction phenomenon than me, but who had worked in the financial services industry and lived a very secular life in his 20s and 30s said to me, "So many of these women have no idea how much awfulness they missed out on." He told me that the way many of the men he worked with in the industry viewed and treated women was absolutely awful. It would be nice if the women complaining about purity culture had a little perspective. I think a lot of the deconstruction culture is made up of people who really lack perspective and can't take responsibility for their own choices.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jen's friend Tara Livesay is going in on Brandon in the comments on US Weekly.

[url]https://www.facebook.com/UsWeekly/posts/brandon-hatmaker-is-speaking-out-for-the-first-time-since-his-divorce-from-jen-h/1156525576345393/
[/url]

"My DuDe Brandon -- Are you being serious with this shit?????? You don't think there are a shit ton of receipts about your behaviors. YOU ARE ONE LUCKY SON OF A GUN that Jen said SO SO SO LITTLE about the details in her memoir. GOOD LORD, you are lucky. Nobody buys your shit, did you pick up on that in the previous 1,700 comments? NOBODY.

Get lost --- PREFERABLY AT THERAPY --- And I mean THERAPY THAT YOU DON'T QUIT EARLY (BEFORE IT IS FINISHED) - WHEN SOMEONE ELSE IS PAYING FOR IT."

Definitely makes me wonder what her friends know that she left out.

Ouch! What provoked her to say this??

His stubstack. But now he's done with that, so I think there is def more dirt that neither Jen nor Brando want in the public.

Really shocked that she included a chapter about a groomer teacher, considering that is a conservative talking point. The liberal/progressives have a “They’re OUR kids” motto. I wonder if she realized that?

And yes, I did have a groomer teacher in the 90’s. He was finally (!) fired for asking for a hug (from his well-endowed favorite female student), in exchange for a bathroom pass.