Official Review: It Was The Devil All Along

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Dolor
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Official Review: It Was The Devil All Along

Post by Dolor »

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "It Was The Devil All Along" by Avalon Soulette Brown.]
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3 out of 4 stars
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In It Was The Devil All Along, Avalon Soulette Brown shares her firsthand experience and addresses many of the concerns related to the politics of the nursing field, prejudice, attitude, faith, love, resilience, struggle, and racial discrimination. Consisted of 284 pages, this memoir's revised edition was published by MEP Publishing in 2018.

Just like most of the human beings, Avalon is dealing with the life management issues: work-related, social, mental, and religious conflicts. At work, she is industrious, smart, and she accomplishes her tasks with less supervision. However, she gets easily upset every time the devil in her is stirred by her colleagues. Whenever she feels enraged, she realizes that the devil won over her. Against all odds, she tries her best to suppress and win over the influence of the devil inside her. Her ultimate goal is to serve God with all her mind, heart, body, and soul. With God whispering in one ear and the devil in the other, which voice will Avalon follow? Reading the story made me agree that It Was The Devil All Along.

Even though some of her colleagues didn't find anything good in her, this was Avalon's evaluation of herself: "I knew I was a good worker. I never really needed the praise of the supervisors. When those patients said thank you and I left smiles on their faces, I knew I had done something good." I was touched by Avalon's good heart, strong character, and resilience that can be depicted in her own reflection in this quote. On top of that, she was not someone who can be stepped on.

Avalon's writing style was clear and concise. Redundant words were used for emphasis. She shared most of her experience at work, at home, and at the church. With the competition and prejudice at work, she highlighted her struggles in fighting for the devil which stirred up hate and revenge within her. Most of all, she recognized and thanked God for being there, never leaving by her side, and fulfilling her needs.

I empathized with Avalon for the hardships she faced. She was almost killing herself at work, but there was not a drop of appreciation. Despite her diligence, she received negative evaluations from her superior. I was glad she realized that her enemies were not her colleagues and definitely not her own self but the devil himself.

There was nothing I disliked in the contents of the book, but the punctuation, grammar, and typographical errors prevented me from giving it a perfect rating. After a thorough round of proofreading and editing, I could bump the score up to the highest rating. I would like to suggest having a glossary at the back page because of the presence of the acronyms (i.e., NICU, GI-GU, DVT, RQM, etc.), which do not exist in my country. Given the expansions of those acronyms, my reading flow had been smoother.

My final rating of Avalon Soulette Brown's It Was The Devil All Along is 3 out of 4 stars. I recommend this book to the lovers of biography, autobiography, and nonfiction genres. Those who are not into hearing complaints from colleagues and work-related issues are free to bypass reading this book.

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It Was The Devil All Along
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Debjani Ghosh
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Post by Debjani Ghosh »

Great review! The protagonist seems like a good woman. As far as I could understand, the author calls revenge and hate inside her as the devil, right?
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Post by Dolor »

Debjani Ghosh wrote: 09 Oct 2018, 09:34 Great review! The protagonist seems like a good woman. As far as I could understand, the author calls revenge and hate inside her as the devil, right?
Thanks for the compliment, Debjani. Yes, Avalon is a great woman. Revenge and hate were the emotions inside her that were stirred by the devil. Thanks for reading my review and dropping your comment.
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Post by ea_anthony »

This is a very good review, well-done! It is easy to see that you like the writing style of Avalon Soulette Brown. The premise of the book covers all the regular challenges most people face on the daily (politics of her profession, the gamut of human emotions and the life management issues noted). This book obviously shares one woman's challenge in facing these issues and her methods of dealing /overcoming them. Ms Avalon should be commended for putting pen to paper to tell her story.
I like the fact too that she was able to Identify the devil as the real enemy, this resonates with my faith and belief. I hope to read this book soon and will be glad to find it enjoyable or at worst educative, or at best, both!
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Post by EvaDar »

This sounds like an intriguing book about duality. Good in one ear and evil in the other, and the struggle to forge one's own path. Sounds interesting. I will add it to my shelves. Thanks for the great review.
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Post by Alicia09 »

I think this story is still relevant today because there are still tons of women like the author who continue to experience discrimination at work. May I ask what historical time period this memoir covered?
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Post by Manang Muyang »

We Catholics believe in spiritual warfare; the good and bad forces are battling for people's souls. The voice that speaks inside our heads is our conscience; we should be worried when that small voice speaks no more. We would have become deaf to the good in our souls. I hope Avalon is experiencing better times now. I admire her for listening to her conscience and fighting the good fight. Devils, begone!
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Post by wendos »

There are two in every person's life. The bad and the good. Many are able to master the bad side and suppress its power yet others struggle. I like that the protagonist was able to discover the devil's influence in her life. Nice review.
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Post by CommMayo »

Nice review. Too bad about the lack of proper editing :-(

Your new picture isn't looking too shabby either!
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Post by Dragonsend »

Great review, sounds like she had quite the battle on her hands. I am putting this on my want to read list. Thank you!
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