LET IT GO: How To Get Frozen Songs The Heck Out Of Your Head, by Steven J Siegel

Genre: Non-fiction

Overview: When I first saw the title of the book, I thought it is about getting rid of earworms. The “Let It Go” pun was simply lost on me (and I did not notice the italicized “Frozen”). Once I read the first few paragraphs, I realized it is specific to songs from the Frozen soundtrack (though it could easily be applied to other annoying earworms as well).

What’s ironic is, despite its title, the book ends up actually putting the song into your head. I never had any of the Frozen songs stuck in my head. But I have had “Let it go” stuck in my head since last night and I don’t really know what to do about it. And no, the advice in the book isn’t helping

Writing technique: Now, I have not read a lot of “funny” books. 9gag memes, sure. But not books. When I began to read this book, I assumed it would be funny/sarcastic. The sighs of a frustrated parent. But now that I have finished reading it, I am not sure if that’s the vein it was intended in. It does not come across so much as funny, as it does as a generic blog post about something fairly obvious. Something someone wanted to vent out.

A lot of sentences seem redundant. It does appear the author was trying to emphasize about how frustrated he was. But it just feels like we are reading the same sentences over and over.

Apparently, to get rid of the earworms, the author consulted “music experts”. The advice they gave? Obvious techniques that any school kid could tell you. There was really no need to consult “experts” to establish the credibility of the advice given.

The part where the author talks about words and movies we should not think of was kinda funny. It made me laugh, but the issue here is, you just cannot figure out if “funny” is what is intended here. Or are you laughing at someone’s efforts for truly trying to be helpful? Oh! The frustration of not knowing!

And the frustration of having “Let It Go” stuck in my head ever since I read this book.

Rating: 2.5/5

Buy it here (or not. I read it only cos the author requested a review)

Final comment: This should have been a blog post, not a book.

Note: A review for this book was requested by the author. All opinions expressed in this post, needless to say, are mine alone.

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