Book Review: Listening in the Dark

By Sara Steven

This remarkable anthology includes essays from Jessica Valenti, Lidia Yuknavitch, Jia Tolentino, Samantha Irby, Meredith Talusan, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Amy Poehler, America Ferrera, Ada Limón, Huma Abedin and many others, who all share how intuition has helped to shape and alter their life choices.

Have you ever had a feeling about something that you just couldn’t explain, but knew was right or wrong? Something that was telling you in your gut what decision to make, which direction to go in, or what to believe? For generations, women have been taught to ignore their intuitive intelligence, whether in their personal lives or professional ones, in favor of making logical, evidence-based decisions. But what if that small voice or deeper knowing was our greatest gift, an untapped power we could use to effect positive change?

Edited by award-winning author, activist, and actress Amber Tamblyn, Listening in the Dark is a compilation of some of today’s most striking women visionaries across industries—in literature, science, art, education, medicine, and politics—who share their experiences engaging with their own inner wisdom in pivotal, crossroad moments.

Filled with deeply personal and revelatory essays, Listening in the Dark will empower readers to reconnect with their own unique intuitive process, to see it as the precious resource it is, and to be unafraid to listen to all that it has to say and all that it has to offer. (Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads.)

Initially, I wanted to read Listening in the Dark because there were a few names I’d recognized, like Amy Poehler, America Ferrera and Amber Tamblyn–the latter two actresses who I loved seeing in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants franchise. And Amy Poehler is so fun to watch, and so funny. I wasn’t sure what to expect from their written reflections, or any of the stories from the other authors, too. 

What I found were intimate accounts of what it’s like to rely on your female intuition, and how often, we don’t trust it. I can really relate to that right now, given recent situations I’ve been in where I had felt red flags, yet I didn’t listen to that inner gut intuition. This led to issues that might have been avoided had I relied on trusting myself. Many of the writers point out that often, women can feel stagnant when it comes to their intuition. If they speak up, they’re told, “Oh, it’s not as bad as you think it is.” Or, “That’s all in your head.” I’ve experienced that before, but never considered it as a way to diminish my inner voice. The authors shed an important light on that, and so much more, speaking directly from the heart. It really resonated with me.

The writing had been beautifully done. We often see celebrities as one-dimensional and stick them in a box depending on what we most associate them with, but Amber Tamblyn is as gifted an author as she is an actor. There was one particular story where she shared an interesting take on intuition when it comes to friendship, and I really felt for her and her experience with loss and grief, and recognition. Another author shared her own tragic story of how intuition had guided her towards assisting one of her children, but had seemed to fail her with her other child, and even in that desperate time, she managed to come through that experience with a better understanding of herself and of the world

I’m not always the best judge of character when it comes to using my best judgment, and it seems the older I get, the worse I can be at relying on my intuition. But after Listening in the Dark, I am more compelled to believe in myself and those gut feelings, even if it means at times diverting from what others think is the right decision, or the right path for me. I enjoyed this woman’s collaboration on such an important topic!

Thanks to Park Row for the book in exchange for an honest review.

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