Review: The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence by Gavin de Becker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The whole idea that your brain can know something, can grasp grave danger for example, while at the same time some other part of us seeks to silence this intuition, this rudimentary knowledge - it is fascinating. This is a book about how to avoid that trap. This is a book that wants everyone, especially women, to listen to their intuition about dangerous situations, dangerous people and feelings that something is off or amiss.

Gavin de Becker is an expert at assessing risk and evaluating the likelihood of violence in many different situations. In this book he goes through dozens of stories of lives lost to a violent act that many had expected, but just as many had rationalized away into irrelevance.

Stalkers, jealous husbands, creepy co-workers - you name it, de Becker covers it in this book.

He provides long lists of telltale signs of violence-to-come. He tells you exactly what to look for. If you are worried that you will hurt someone's feeling by not stepping into an elevator with them because they give you the creeps - read this book. You will get the permission you seek to go right ahead and be rude. The author wants everyone, especially women, to listen to and obey their instincts rather than rationalize and reason with them.

All will enjoy the valuable advice in this book. Young women, especially, should read this book.



View all my reviews