I gave this book as a gift to my boyfriend today, through his mother. She knows that I read quite a few books and she literally gifted it to me. Of course, I will buy the rest; I just had to say this. Eight months ago, I lost my beloved father to cancer, and I would say I have been quite...emotionally "weird" in the last few months. The first 10 pages of the book were what kept me engaged. I may be relatively young. Working and going to school at the same time, being on my feet for 16 hours a day, but I said I would finish this book in one day, and I did. After all, I'm not just a freebie bookworm. Anyway, too many words are poverty; very few books have made me cry, and this was one of them. I suggested it to my mother to read. I like how the author speaks simply because it reminds me of how my father spoke and how we still talk as a family. "Drombra," or much more simply, "pantelonato." It may sound somewhat...weird now, especially coming from a girl writing this, but you feel everything that is written. Especially if you have lived intense situations in your life. And I say again...I may be young, but I miss him, and I can't have him by my side. The void is huge and unbearable; I am lost and have just put myself on autopilot and go... That's all from me; kudos to the courage of anyone who took the time to read my review. ️

The Gift 2 by Stefanos Xenakis is the sequel to The Gift, a book that many loved and others... read because it was given to them as a gift and they didn't know how to politely get rid of it.

If The Gift was a self-improvement book full of simplistic advice and clichés like "Live in the moment!" and "Smile!", The Gift 2 comes to tell us the same things, but with a bit more inflated confidence, like an influencer who just discovered mindfulness and thinks they solved all of humanity's problems.

Xenakis writes in a style that resembles a motivational speaker who attended a Tony Robbins seminar and returned ready to change the world (translated to: sell more books). His stories are simple, so simple that if you read them between two notifications on your phone, you haven't missed anything. He tells you things you already know, but in a tone that implies if you’re not applying them, then you’re probably to blame for all your problems.

The book follows the same recipe as the first: little stories, feel-good quotes, and plenty of generalities about how to live more "authentically," without any deeper analysis or substantial advice. It's a bit like reading Instagram posts in book form—and without the option to scroll and see something more interesting.

So if you’re looking for something to feel for two minutes that "life is beautiful" before returning to the same anxieties, The Gift 2 is just what you need. But if you want something that will actually change your life, you’d better invest your time elsewhere. Perhaps in a real gift... like a good novel or, I don’t know, a box of chocolates. At least those won’t try to convince you that happiness depends on whether you say good morning to the kiosk owner.