Self-help ✦ Penny’s Take
Stop Fixing Yourself
Anthony De Mello · 2021
78/100
👍 Worth It
De Mello's central argument — that the self-improvement industry's premise is backwards, and that awareness rather than effortful fixing is the path to freedom — is both counterintuitive and genuinely liberating, delivered in the short, story-driven chapters that made his earlier work sell two million copies. The posthumous compilation format means this is curated rather than original, but the best De Mello passages are worth having in any packaging. Readers who are comfortable with Eastern-Western spiritual synthesis will find real value here; those seeking orthodox Christian devotion should look elsewhere.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: Eastern-Western spiritual synthesis; Vatican 1998 doctrinal notification — relevant for traditionally observant Catholic readers. We still scored it 78; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety80
substance80
craft82
originality72
accuracy76
hype70
age-fit82
human-eye80
Penny’s verdict78
Cross-pollinate