Review of Awake: A Memoir by Jen Hatmaker

Jen Hatmaker's memoir explores her shock, grief, then growth after the end of her marriage, which she tells in her signature bold, frank, lionhearted manner while always displaying her deep love for her family and friends.

Jen Hatmaker, who was married before she could legally have a drink and who built her identity as a woman dedicated to her family, her religion, and her community, found her world turned upside down when she discovered in 2020 that her husband of over 25 years, the father of their five children, was having an affair.

Having inspired women for years as a leader in authenticity and a proponent of healthy relationships, Hatmaker found herself clinically depressed and feeling like an imposter, feeling everything she had counted on shaken to its core.

Hatmaker recounts her rock bottom, her reliance on family and friends, her discovery of her own strength, and the midlife renaissance she experienced after all she knew imploded.

By tracking back to her youth and young-adult years and alternating with scenes from more recent life, she explores pivotal moments of her life, including the evolution of her religious discovery.

Hatmaker's frank, sassy, conversational tone and her focus on authenticity, joy, and enthusiastic growth are evident here. She doesn't shy away from exploring heartbreak, betrayal, and shock, nor does she mine those experiences for drama or sit in them for a gratuitously long time. She protects her children's privacy. While sharing what she learns was her husband's extended infidelity and her world-stopping surprise at discovering it, she doesn't excoriate him, and she acknowledges the weaknesses in their marriage that existed prior to their split.

Awake illustrates Hatmaker's vulnerability as she searches for a way out of grief, fights to simply function, then travels different paths of discovery and healing in order to come through her devastation like a phoenix from the fire. If you've read any of Jen Hatmaker's writing, you're likely familiar with her passionate loyalty to and love for her family and her friends; this is apparent throughout Awake as she leans on those she trusts, stretches herself to be open to new things, and confirms that she has a soft landing place should she fall.

I listened to Awake as a library audiobook.

More More More Memoirs!

I love reading the stories of lives lived, so I frequently read memoirs. If you're interested in the stories of famous or little-known people's lives, you might want to check out these Bossy reviews of memoirs.