Anonymous wrote:Sometimes I almost want to go back and read Seven just to see the glaring inconsistencies of how she is now, and also if there’s an undercurrent of her narcissism that went unnoticed then.
Almost.
So I actually picked up a copy of Simple and Free (the updated version of 7) in a used bookstore, which is the only way I'm buying any of Jen's books moving forward. For all of the pushing of "there are tons of updates!" for Simple and Free, all of the updates in their entirety might amount to 4-5 pages at best. I was really glad I didn't buy the hype and pay retail for it. When I initially read 7, I loved it and bought copies for friends. I especially loved the chapter on cutting out excess stuff and clutter. Fast forward all of these years to post-divorce-shilling-rude Jen and Simple and Free just read differently for me. It's like I could suddenly see that there was a calculating approach behind the scenes of "Look at what God is doing when we cut out the excess." The disrespect for Brandon was subtle, but it was definitely there. I read a used copy of Fierce, etc, around the same time and the disrespect for Brandon was extremely blatant and just cringeworthy. If he had written similar things toward her, we all would've called it an abusive relationship and told her to run. So all this to say that YES there is definitely a glaring undercurrent of her narcissism throughout 7 if you want to save yourself the time of reading it.