I have been a fan of Zachary Levi since Chuck, I loved how goofy and entertaining he was in anything he did. I followed his career, because of his personality. I loved how he was so open about being a nerd, and loving geeky things, and seemingly so humble given how much success he seemed to have in his career. I had no idea that was just a facade for so much pain and trauma and abuse, which in my opinion just accentuates how excellent of an actor he is. He had this difficult childhood, made it through and was having an excellent career as far as the public eye could see. I loved that he would always be so excited for Comic-cons, and everyone who met him said he was the nicest guy, humble, but proud. I so wanted to meet him and have a conversation with him, but money and time never really allowed that to happen. It pains me to know how much he struggled behind the scenes alone mostly, but then to see/hear how far he has come, and admitting he may never be "healed" is refreshing. Our society is all about looking perfect, the perfect body, the perfect relationship, the perfect life. Zach makes a point that this is not healthy, this is not how we should live, it is detrimental to our mental health, it's to hard to live up the "Perfect" standard.
This man struggled through so much! Hearing him tell his story in a very real, and raw way, essentially airing out his dirty laundry in his own words, without anyone else twisting and manipulating it, in this day and age is a miracle in and of itself. It makes you connect with him on a whole different level.
The fact that he is the one reading his story, putting all of his emotions out there, makes the book that much more endearing, your heart breaks for him, saying how did you manage to get through that? How did you survive that? This can't be a real thing that happened, what a brave courageous soul! However hearing how much emotion, how much passion, how much research and empathy towards everyone in his life who made it difficult, is astonishing and amazing. He struggled, he suffered but he had the right people in his life when he needed them and he did what he had to do and asked for help, before it was too late. In the long run, he survived, he came out the other side, a better, healthier person then when he started, but admits he will never fully be healed.
I did not have the same upbringing as him, I grew up in a very happy, loving, supportive household. To this day my Mom is one of my best friends, I turn to her for everything, but our relationship was not always that good, she in her own way made me the way I am. I struggle with loving myself on a daily basis. I don't believe every compliment, statement or positive conversations I have with people, I am always waiting for that perverbial other shoe to drop, it doesn't usually, but when it does, in my mind I go "there it is, I knew that was coming". My struggles day to day with myself are nothing like Zachary's, but this book made me look at myself in a new light, a new way to fix myself.
I already had A LOT of respect for Zachary Levi, I love him as all fans do, but after reading/listening to this book, my respect and adoration for him is through the roof! I highly reccomend this book for anyone who needs a little help, or maybe like me you weren't looking for a self help book and just reading/listening because you are a fan, but the entertainment value alone is worth it, and you may learn something about yourself along the way that maybe you didn't before. Zachary has this amazing talent to make the tragic things he had to deal with growing up, just that tragic, but he puts his own little comedic twist on the topics. Whether is the intonation of the sentence, his own little comedic tangent, or the smallest little chuckle at himself, it keeps the book heavy but not to heavy that you need to be like, "whoa I need a break from this right now.."
Thank you for taking us along on your journey Zach, it was enlightening, it was uplifting, it was an emotional roller coaster, but with your quirky, loveable personality, it was exactly what I needed to hear! Especially after the last couple of years we all struggled with. I cannot express in words how much I enjoyed this book, I will be recommending it to everyone I know.