At a glance
Pages352
First published2020
Audiobook7h · Glennon Doyle
AudienceAdult
ISBN1785043358
Untamed
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for: Readers — particularly women — who are ready to interrogate whether the life they are living reflects their own values or an identity handed to them by family, religion, or culture, and who are drawn to memoir that blends confessional personal narrative with spiritual and cultural argument.
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Untamed is Glennon Doyle's #1 New York Times bestselling memoir tracing her path from a life shaped by societal expectation to one built on her own desire and identity — anchored by the dramatic, named moment of falling in love with retired soccer player and activist Abby Wambach while still married. With its clear three-part structure ("Caged," "Keys," "Free") and over two million copies sold, it has earned its place as a defining cultural artifact of personal liberation narrative. Readers who embrace unapologetically subjective, spiritually inflected memoir will find it galvanizing; those who prefer journalistic balance or whose lives differ substantially from Doyle's particular experience of faith, marriage, and public identity may find the universalizing message reaches further than the evidence strictly supports.
- Is it worth reading?
- Untamed has resonated with an extraordinary number of readers — over two million copies sold and a #1 New York Times bestseller debut speak to a documented cultural reach that is difficult to dismiss. Its three-part structure, specific personal stakes (Doyle's marriage, her children, her relationship with Abby Wambach), and the framing question — "Who Were You Before the World Told You Who to Be?" — give readers something concrete and actionable. The key caveat is that Doyle writes with conviction rather than qualification, and readers who want journalistic balance or who find their own lives differ markedly from her particular experience of faith and public identity may find the universalizing message uneven. For readers hungry to examine whether the life they are living reflects their own values, it is one of the most significant memoirs of its decade.
- Similar books
- Readers drawn to Untamed's blend of personal rupture and cultural argument will find strong companions in the curated shelf below. Tara Westover's Educated shares the theme of breaking free from a constraining upbringing to forge an independent identity, while Cheryl Strayed's Wild offers a similarly solo journey of radical self-reclamation. Brené Brown's The Gifts of Imperfection overlaps thematically with Doyle's argument about abandoning externally imposed expectations in favour of one's own worth. For memoirs grounded in dramatic, specific personal stakes, Yeonmi Park's In Order to Live and Lisa-Marie Presley and Riley Keough's From Here to the Great Unknown both offer powerful accounts of navigating identity under extraordinary pressure. Glennon Doyle's own Carry On, Warrior also belongs on this list for readers who want to follow her voice from the beginning.
- Who should read this?
- Untamed is, by design and documented reception, for readers who are willing — or hungry — to examine whether the life they are living reflects their own values or someone else's. Readers drawn to memoir that blends personal narrative with spiritual and cultural argument will find it structurally clear and emotionally direct. It was selected for Reese's Book Club, signalling its primary audience as women seeking emotionally resonant nonfiction — though its themes of identity, self-determination, and the cost of societal conditioning are not exclusive to any gender. Readers whose own experience of faith, marriage, or public identity differs substantially from Doyle's may find the universalizing ambitions of the text uneven.
- About Glennon Doyle
- Glennon Doyle is an American author and queer activist known for her books Untamed, Love Warrior, We Can Do Hard Things, and Carry On, Warrior.
- What are the main themes?
- The central argument of Untamed is that women are conditioned by family, religion, and culture to abandon their own instincts and desires in favour of an identity handed to them by the world — and that reclaiming those instincts is both possible and necessary. Doyle grounds this thesis in concrete personal stakes: her marriage, her children, and the dramatic moment of falling in love with Abby Wambach. Themes of faith, self-determination, the cost of societal expectation, and the tension between personal truth and external authority run throughout. The cheetah-in-captivity metaphor, introduced early, provides an accessible through-line that unifies these ideas across the memoir's three parts.
- Where to start with Glennon Doyle?
- Untamed is self-contained and widely considered Doyle's most fully realised statement of her central themes — making it a sound starting point for new readers. Those who want to understand the full arc of her personal story may prefer to begin with Carry On, Warrior and then Love Warrior, both of which document the earlier chapters that Untamed transforms. Her previous memoir Love Warrior was itself a #1 New York Times bestseller and an Oprah's Book Club selection, so readers arriving via Untamed have a well-regarded back catalogue to explore.
Summarize this book
Is it worth reading?
Who should read this?
About Glennon Doyle
What are the main themes?
Where to start with Glennon Doyle?
Summarize this book
Untamed is structured in three parts — "Caged," "Keys," and "Free" — mapping Glennon Doyle's emotional arc from constraint to liberation. The book opens with a central metaphor of women as cheetahs confined in a zoo: adapted to captivity, yet born for something wilder. The inciting event is concrete and dramatic — while still married, Doyle was speaking at a conference when Abby Wambach walked into the room, and three words arrived in her mind: "There She Is." From that moment, the memoir traces what her vow to never again abandon herself costs, and what it makes possible.
Follow up
What's the three-part structure about?
Who is Abby Wambach?
Is there a companion workbook?
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Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Adult
Reading level
Adult
Content to know about
discussion of infidelity and marriage dissolution
faith deconstruction and religious identity
Skip if you want memoir that interrogates its narrator or presents multiple, balanced perspectives on its central argument.
Editorial Review
Untamed is the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir by Glennon Doyle — a Reese's Book Club selection that has sold over two million copies — tracing Doyle's journey from a life shaped by societal expectations to one built on her own desire, intuition, and identity, anchored by her falling in love with retired soccer player and activist Abby Wambach.
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