Brave: A Painfully Shy Life by Helen Rivas-Rose

[KWill20]

Brave: A Painfully Shy Life is a memoir and self help book written by Helen Rivas-Rose. This novel tells the story of Helen's life, which includes her journey of growing up in Maine and traveling to other countries such as Mexico and Italy. While telling the story of her adventures, she makes it well known that for most of her life, she had something holding her back: shyness. And her shyness was more than just a little anxiety, she describes it as "paralyzing."

Helen evaluates the different factors that caused her shyness (her personality, environment, etc.) and tells you how she slowly made herself lose her fear of talking to others. Although it took her many years to really improve herself- 40, I believe, her story is inspiring, thoughtful, and overall amazing. As she analyzes herself she also lets you know that if you are shy, there are ways to improve yourself, and that you are not alone in the fight against shyness.

The writing in this book is extremely wonderful. I was so impressed with the way Helen wrote this novel. She has this intoxicating way of sucking you into her life story. As I read her writing I couldn't help but feel a sense of comfort and warmness. It's almost as if she treats the reader as an old friend, guiding them through the troubles of life and letting them know the details of her strengths/struggles.

I fell in love with this book for many reasons. I loved hearing Helen's story and I loved the way she made it all come together. Most importantly, I loved that she made me feel like I'm not alone. As a shy person, for me anyway, it is sometimes difficult to talk about my struggle of interacting with people. But Helen made me realize that I should not be embarrassed of my shyness and instead should tackle it head on. She helped me understand other people, their motives, and most importantly, she helped me understand myself and my needs as a shy person. I would recommend this novel to anyone, including people who have friends/family who are shy, and teachers who do not understand shy students. And I most definitely recommend it for people who are soft spoken, anxious and struggle with shyness. I give it 5/5 stars.