Title Tuesday: Same Off You

Welcome to  Title Tuesday, my favorite day of the week! This day is dedicated to book suggestions, news, cartoons, and reviews. I write this portion of my blog because I am a big believer in the motivational speaker Charlie Jones' quote which says, "You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” I try to meet as many new people as possible and to read everything I can. This is my way of sharing that information with you. You can see a visual summary of the books I have reviewed for both adults and children over on my Facebook page. If you are interested in understanding my rating system for books you can read my Book Review Explanation here and What I Believe here. If you want to check out what I am currently reading or what I want to read next, friend me on Goodreads!

Today I am a reviewing a book called Shame Off You by Denise Pass. I will begin by stating that the idea of not living in shame is great. However, this book is a far cry from what the title promises. I have three main issues with the book and I am just going to list them out and then explain each one.

1.) Ashamed vs. Shame
I found this book to be an egregious misuse of the English language as an effort to build a platform. Pass states that "Shame is an assault on the core of who we are. It assassinates our character, minimizes our worth, and dashes our hope." 
None of that is accurate. 
There is a difference between shame and ashamed... but Ashamed off You doesn't look as good on a cover. Shame by dictionary definition is a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior. Shame is feeling, it is not some mythical monster lurking in the corner waiting to beat you up. For a full understanding of shamed versus ashamed check out this link. Pass says that she was shamed for her husband's behavior and that his why she had to learn to get shame off of her. The reality was, she isn't shamed. She is ashamed of his behavior, but she herself was not shamed.  

2.) Trigger Warning
There is absolutely nothing in the introduction or on the cover that let the reader know that this book deals with sexual sin. While the cover tells us that Pass finds out that her husband is a sexual offender, it doesn't warn that she walks the reader through the discovery and many details of the situation. If you are someone that has experienced trauma and is dealing with the emotional triggers of it, I would stay far away from this book. 

3.) Daughter's Permission 
I take a real issue with a mother writing what is essentially a tell-all about the abuse her daughter suffered. I could not find a note from her daughter granting permission for Denise to tell this story in the book or on the website. This is especially concerning to me, the idea that this woman is making money off of a story that is only partly hers and in which she is supposed to be protecting her child. 

Overall, I give Shame Off You by Denise Pass a very low C and if I had a lower rating I would use it. I do not recommend this book by any means.