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Whitney Goodman: Toxic Positivity (2022, Penguin Publishing Group) 3 stars

A bit too pop psych.

2 stars

For a book that is touted as a "powerful guide," it's written in the same fluffy self-help style of other books it's likely to be surrounded by. It's not awful, but it's just painfully obvious.

Which, I guess if that's what you need someone to recognise with regards to toxic positivity, it's fine. But for someone who is already very much in agreement with the harms of toxic positivity and has seen and experienced the ways in which it impacts your own marginalised identities? It's like having someone telling you things you already know.

There's not a lot of information; it is definitely more focused on reflections of different elements of toxic positivity. I was expecting it to be one part guide book and one part history (or at least some obvious integration of studies). Though there are notes with references at the back, it's also not clear while reading the chapters themselves. You have to piece them back together yourself, and it's kind of nonsensical.