LuvemBooks
LuvemBooks

Honest Book Reviews & Recommendations

​
BOOKS

Glennon Doyle

About This Author
Published

Read Time

3 min read

$13.90 on Amazon
Curated & edited by

LuvemBooks Editorial

How we create our reviews →
Share This Review

Untamed by Glennon Doyle Review: A #1 Bestselling Memoir of Self-Reclamation

Untamed is a #1 New York Times bestselling memoir by Glennon Doyle — a Reese's Book Club selection that has sold over two million copies — charting Doyle's journey from a constrained life shaped by others' expectations to one built on her own desire, intuition, and identity, anchored by the moment she fell in love with retired soccer star Abby Wambach.

LuvemBooks Verdict

Best for

Women navigating questions of identity, faith, and self-determination who are drawn to confessional, first-person memoir that frames personal transformation as a broader invitation to examine whether one's own life choices are freely made or quietly shaped by expectation.

Worth it if

You respond to memoir that grounds philosophical arguments about societal conditioning in specific, lived personal moments — and welcome a book whose three-part structure ("Caged," "Keys," "Free") offers a clear, coherent arc through intimate, fragmented reflection.

Skip if

You prefer personal memoir to stay clearly personal rather than prescriptive — readers who don't share Doyle's framework around faith and feminism, or those outside the book's primary female audience, may find its confident, template-like declarations more limiting than liberating.

What readers & critics say

Kirkus Reviews called it "a lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal," awarding it a GET IT verdict. According to Wikipedia's entry on the memoir, critics described it as "a testament to female empowerment and self-love, with an endearing coming-out story at the center," predicting it would delight readers.

“Lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.”

— kirkusreviews.com
Sources: Kirkus Reviews, Wikipedia – Untamed (memoir)
4.5from 15,146 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
Trending Now
Other

Untamed by Glennon Doyle is Trending

Glennon Doyle's Untamed Getting Fresh Attention via New Audio Collection

A newly highlighted audio collection of Glennon Doyle's earlier essays is drawing readers back to Untamed. It's pitched as a companion listen for fans of her voice and style, which is keeping her work in the conversation right now.

A curated audio collection of Glennon Doyle's essays — read in her own voice — is getting fresh attention, and it's pulling people back toward Untamed in the process. The audio release is described as a natural companion piece for listeners who loved Untamed and want more of Doyle's honest, often funny takes on motherhood, faith, and the beautiful mess of everyday life.

For a lot of readers, Untamed was one of those books that hit at exactly the right personal moment. The audio format tends to work especially well with Doyle's material because so much of her appeal is in her voice and delivery — both literally and figuratively. If you've been curious about Untamed but haven't picked it up yet, this renewed buzz is a decent nudge.

Just keep in mind that the book works best if you're in a season of questioning or change yourself. It's not for everyone, but if that description fits you right now, it's worth your time.

Source:
Benable
Read more
Updated Jun 17, 2026
In This Review
  • What Works & What Doesn't
  • What the Book Is and What It Argues
  • Premise and Personal Stakes
  • Cultural Reach and Recognition
  • Strengths Noted by Readers
  • Limitations and Who May Struggle with It

What Works & What Doesn't

What Works
  • A #1 New York Times bestseller and Reese's Book Club selection with over two million copies sold, reflecting exceptional and documented reach
  • Structured in three clearly titled parts — 'Caged,' 'Keys,' and 'Free' — that give the memoir a coherent, navigable arc
  • Grounds its broader argument about women and societal conditioning in specific, named personal experiences rather than abstract theory
  • Designed to spark communal discussion, with Doyle actively engaging book clubs around the memoir
What Doesn't
  • Its prescriptive, template-like tone may feel overbearing to readers who prefer personal memoir to stay clearly personal rather than instructional
  • Most directly addresses women examining identity and self-determination — readers outside that primary audience may find its direct address less resonant
A #1 New York Times bestseller and Reese's Book Club selection with over two million copies sold, Untamed by Glennon Doyle has established itself as one of the most widely read memoirs of its era.

What the Book Is and What It Argues

Back cover with synopsis, endorsement quote from Adele, publisher details, and barcode.
Back cover with synopsis, endorsement quote from Adele, publisher details, and barcode.
Untamed is a memoir structured around a central turning point: Doyle, then in an unhappy marriage with her ex-husband and raising three children, attended a conference where she saw retired professional soccer player, speaker, author, and activist Abby Wambach walk into the room — and fell instantly in love. The book's central argument flows from that moment: that women are conditioned, from an early age, to abandon their truest selves in order to fit the roles society assigns them, and that genuine freedom requires a conscious, often painful act of reclamation. Doyle frames this through a governing metaphor — women compared to cheetahs caged in a zoo, creatures meant to live with wild abandon but confined instead to a constructed, domesticated version of existence. The book's three parts are titled "Caged," "Keys," and "Free," tracing the arc from constraint through discovery to liberation.

Premise and Personal Stakes

The memoir does not present Doyle's love for Wambach as merely a romantic revelation; it positions that moment as the catalyst for a far broader reckoning with identity, faith, motherhood, and self-trust. Doyle recounts grappling with what it means to leave behind a life built on others' definitions of who she should be — as a wife, a Christian, a public figure — and constructing, in its place, a life rooted in her own imagination and values. The book's organizing question, posed directly to the reader — "Who were you before the world told you who to be?" — signals its intent to function not only as personal testimony but as an invitation to collective self-examination. Some readers and commentators have described that invitation as the book's most resonant quality, noting that its framework prompts reflection on whether one's own choices are genuinely freely made or quietly coerced by expectation.

Cultural Reach and Recognition

The scale of Untamed's reception is documented and significant. It reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and was selected by Reese Witherspoon's Book Club, two markers that placed it squarely in mainstream cultural conversation. Over two million copies sold is the figure attached to Doyle's own verified author biography. Doyle had established a readership before this book — her prior titles Love Warrior (an Oprah's Book Club selection and #1 New York Times bestseller) and Carry On, Warrior (a New York Times bestseller) — giving Untamed a built-in audience that its reception then dramatically expanded. Doyle was also named among OWN Network's SuperSoul100 inaugural group, recognized as one of 100 leaders using their voices to elevate humanity.

Strengths Noted by Readers

The memoir's structural clarity — three titled parts that map directly onto its emotional and philosophical arc — gives readers a coherent through-line through what is otherwise an intimate, fragmented collection of personal vignettes and reflections. Commentators who have engaged with the book point to its directness: Doyle does not abstract her argument into theory but grounds it in specific moments from her own life, making the larger claims about womanhood, conditioning, and freedom feel personally earned rather than prescribed. The cheetah metaphor, introduced early, recurs throughout as an organizing image that anchors the book's more expansive philosophical territory. Doyle also reportedly encourages direct engagement with book clubs — inviting groups to contact her to join their meetings — a gesture that underscores the participatory, communal spirit the memoir is designed to foster.

Limitations and Who May Struggle with It

The book's greatest strength — its deeply personal, first-person confessional register — is also the quality most likely to divide readers. Untamed is unambiguously a memoir of one woman's specific spiritual, romantic, and ideological transformation, and its prescriptive undertones (the sense that Doyle's path is offered as a template, not merely a testimony) may not sit easily with readers who prefer their nonfiction to maintain a clearer boundary between personal narrative and universal instruction. Readers who do not share Doyle's framework around faith, feminism, or social expectation may find the book's confident declarations less liberating than limiting. The memoir is written for and most directly addresses women navigating questions of identity and self-determination; readers outside that primary audience may find its address less immediate.

Sources & Further Reading

The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.

  1. 1
    Glennon Doyle — author profileHigh-authority source

    Glennon Doyle, Wikipedia

  2. 2
    book review: “Untamed” by Glennon Doyle — wild hope therapy

    wildhopetherapy.com

  3. 3
    Untamed by Glennon Doyle

    bookofthemonth.com

  4. 4
    Untamed – by Glennon Doyle

    untamedbook.com

  5. 5
    Untamed by Glennon Doyle - Review & Summary

    badassbooksandbesties.com

  6. 6
    Summary, Key Ideas + Review: Untamed by Glennon Doyle

    the-bibliofile.com

  7. 7
    Untamed by Glennon Doyle Book Summary and Review • Christina All Day

    christinaallday.com

  8. 8
    Book Review: Untamed by Glennon Doyle — Books, Interrupted

    booksinterrupted.com

  9. 9
    Review: Untamed - Gissellereads

    gissellereads.com

  10. 10
    Review: Untamed by Glennon Doyle - Book Club Chat

    bookclubchat.com

  11. 11
    Review of “Untamed” by Glennon Doyle - Discover with Deanna

    discoverwithdeanna.com

  12. 12
    Summary: Untamed by Glennon Doyle - Littler Books

    littlerbooks.com

  13. 13
    Summary of 'Untamed' by Glennon Doyle: A Detailed Synopsis

    newbookrecommendation.com

Related Reviews

Reviews of books we picked for readers who enjoyed Untamed.

Educated cover

In our catalogue

Educated

Tara Westover

A woman dismantles the identity her family built for her and forges a truer self — shares Untamed's core tension between inherited roles and personal liberation.

In Order to Live cover

In our catalogue

In Order to Live

Yeonmi Park, Maryanne Vollers

A young woman escapes an oppressive system and rebuilds her identity from scratch — a more extreme but structurally parallel story of personal liberation against enormous odds.

From Here to the Great Unknown cover

In our catalogue

From Here to the Great Unknown

Lisa-Marie Presley, Riley Keough

A daughter reckons with addiction, grief, and an identity shaped entirely by others — raw, unfiltered, and emotionally aligned with Untamed's confessional register.

Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing cover

In our catalogue

Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing

Matthew Perry

If Untamed felt too prescriptive or spiritually earnest, Perry's addiction memoir is darker, funnier, and stubbornly unsentimental — same brutal honesty, zero life-coaching.