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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
A M Lavender’s The Permission Slip follows the period after the life the author has spent holding together finally breaks apart. In August 2025, secret gambling and debt have driven his wife from the house, and he is left alone trying to look functional while planning to end his life. When a Ring camera makes the ladder he is carrying appear to be a rifle, his wife calls for help, bringing his mother and the sheriff’s deputies to the door. The misunderstanding exposes how completely he has learned to hide what is happening inside him. From there, the book asks the harder question of what comes after the collapse. Lavender begins learning how to recognize the performance before it takes over again, then slowly builds a life in which telling the truth becomes safer than pretending to be fine.
A M Lavender’s The Permission Slip is a brilliant memoir-infused self-help book, and the author understands what exhausted readers need when getting through the day takes everything they have. The Field Guides give them something usable for everyday life. The Glass Balls and Plastic Balls exercise turns an overloaded day into a workable decision: rent is glass; the bathroom is plastic. The scripts for saying no are perfect for when we draw a blank the moment a tired mind needs them most. Lavender gives each chapter an image that stays. The circuit-breaker comparison makes shutdown understandable via a house carrying too much electricity at once. Blunt humor keeps painful material accessible while a compassionate voice makes the advice feel human. This book meets people where they are and gives them the tools to know what to do next, respecting the difficulty and effort required to begin. Readers looking for gentler self-help should put The Permission Slip at the top of their list.
