FIX FEAR by SIC ILL by Demetrius Jackson - Book Review

Demetrius C. Jackson, also known as the artist SIC ILL writes this book in hopes of giving others self-esteem and self-confidence. This book is not a substitute for therapy and you should immediately contact a professional for help if needed. This book is meant to be a 12-step plan that can be easily accessed. Browse the table of contents and find the negative emotion you are feeling and read the suggested cure to fix your fear. Enjoy!*

Kindle Edition Published October 14th, 2017
Official Site (read it here)

I received a request to review this book, from Puget Sound Mixtape. The way it was worded made me almost label it as spam and after receiving a reply to my request for more information still left me confused, I probably should have just ignored it. However, after looking up the book on Amazon, I noticed it was a really short read and that it was available on Kindle Unlimited, so I decided to give it a chance. This would be a mistake that would almost lead to a very negative review, as the Kindle edition of FIX FEAR is an absolute disaster.

From what I have gathered, the entire thing was originally posted as a blog and then copied/pasted into a format for Ebooks. This left pretty much all of the original formatting (spacing, italics...etc) in a jumbled mess or in a state of non-existence.  The spacing between quotes (which there are a lot of) is inconsistent, the lists are all jumbled together and several of the headers are all over the place. This version of FIX FEAR (that goes for $9.99 on Amazon) is in desperate need of reworking because, currently, it comes off as incredibly unprofessional.

So, here I was, with a spammy sounding request and a book that looked like it was just carelessly put together. I didn't like it, but it felt like a negative review was about to be in the works. Now, I really hate posting negative reviews, so I have a habit of checking out what other people think just to see if I missed something when the situation arises. This left me even more confused, as I found absolutely ZERO negative reviews of FIX FEAR. Granted, most of the reviews were one or two sentences and did not have much detail...but I have to admit it made the situation feel even more sketchy. So, I decided that since it was such a short book, that I would try re-reading the version posted on the blog.

This made a huge difference in my opinion of the book. The version that appears on the blog is formatted correctly and MUCH easier to read. However, some of the issues I had with it the first time...still stuck around.

There are several spelling and grammar issues.  I am not going to sit here and claim to be the champion of formatting or grammar, but if you plan on selling a book, you really need to take some extra steps if you want to be taken seriously.

Some of the advice in the book is good and I like the idea of using little short stories as examples of dealing with each of the emotions it deals with. However, several of the aforementioned stories come off as either incredibly childish or downright preachy. It also presents emotions as things that can 100% be controlled (if you feel *insert emotion*, just do this simple thing), which to me, shows an incredible lack of understanding of mental illness. For someone who may not be dealing with mental issues, the "cures" and examples shown could easily work. However, someone dealing with something like clinical depression or CPTSD may be left more frustrated. It does have a disclaimer at the beginning of the book saying that it is not a substitute for therapy and if you need help...you should get it from a professional, but that is not going to stop someone from trying the "cures" listed in this book.

Another thing you should know about FIX FEAR is that the majority of it is just quoted from other people. Some of the emotions also look like they had much more effort put into them in comparison to others that have barely a paragraph in total.

Ultimately, this does not feel like a finished book to me. I could totally see it as a rough outline of a future, more professional and put together project, as is, I think it works better as a blog. If Demetrius Jackson did more research, found himself a proofreader/editor (or just used Grammarly), and expanded on what he has currently, it definitely has the potential to be a good addition to the self-help genre.

Rating: 2/5 (Kindle edition) 3/5 (Blog version)

*FIX FEAR by SIC ILL book cover and summary from Goodreads.
*Suspicious Futurama gif from Giphy.