The book Shut Your Monkey by Danny Gregory caught my attention with its description. We all have doubts, and that inner voice often tells us unpleasant things that can sometimes make us give up. Danny Gregory suggests visualizing this panicky voice as a monkey that lives inside us and holds us back from growing and achieving success.
The author worked in creative fields for many years, and this is evident in the book’s design: it’s full of sketches and illustrations, with white pages alternating with black ones. It’s clear that he was aiming to create not just a book but a creative piece of art.
While there are some interesting ideas, the book as a whole didn’t captivate me because it lacks a clear, cohesive approach.
It feels more like a notebook where the author jotted down his thoughts and artistic sketches “on the subject” and then decided to publish the whole notebook as a book. Perhaps because of this, it reads quickly and easily—there are no long chapters, just short paragraphs on one thought before moving on to the next.
Unfortunately, that’s where the positives end. At some point, I even found myself thinking that the book felt like the speech of an American preacher: short, concise, emotional, but with an obvious underlying agenda—selling a form of religious fanaticism.
You can read it to reflect on how you deal with your own inner panic monkey, but don’t expect much more from the book.
My rating: 3/5
