Out of the Maze is a tricky book to review. I haven’t read the prequel Who Moved My Cheese, apparently the biggest selling book on Amazon a couple of years after its publication, but I don’t believe that’s necessary – the first book covers embracing change, this book deals with how inflexible belief systems can be detrimental and restrictive. The writing is fine, the messages useful, and the book educates by way of a fable – a style I’m not fond of as I explained in my reviews for Pig Wrestling and the Goal – but that’s not why it’s hard to review.
My problem is the length – it took less than half an hour to read, cover to cover, including the acknowledgements and some details on the author’s battle with cancer. Like Pig Wrestling, the author knocks out a dozen or so short proverbs, punchy little 10 word sentences which sound authoritative, then they get padded into a story, someone designs a cover, and bam, a book is produced. This would’ve been fine as an essay or a magazine article, it just doesn’t have the legs for a self-contained book.
But given I enjoyed it for what it is, and the price isn’t an issue for me (I’m reviewing an ARC), I can only score it on the content, not the package as a whole. So, 4 seems fair to me, but I suspect if you’d paid hard-earned money for it, you would feel differently.
See review on Goodreads.
Book supplied by Netgalley for an honest review.