Hooked

As an educator, I am so disappointed in this book. It’s being categorized as scientific, but it’s anything but. I came here expecting something akin to Mary Roach’s writing, and instead, I received a diatribe about the cons of premarital sex with very little scientific backing. The science that was presented was correlative at best and the authors didn’t even address the myriad other potential explanations for the presented results. Not a fan of this text at all and frankly, I feel there should be more honesty about what the text is.

This book has so many downfalls and non scientific opinions. If you’re looking for a fact based objective look on sex, this is not it.

There is a lot of academic citations in this book but it seems the way it is written does resonate with intellectual humility. For me the topic is somehow divisive in nature since many people are engaged in premarital sexual intercourse; however, the book only makes a one sided case. I get it that the author has a stand and provide evidence to support their views. However, I think it would be best if the book also provides more empathy and reasonable amount of space to discuss on how to help those people already engaged in sex outside marriage.

In the book Hooked, authors Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr. and Freda McKissic Bush explore how sex, and specifically casual sex, affects the brain. They write: “...sex can literally change a person’s brain, influencing the thought process and affecting future decisions. And therein lies both the benefit and the risk. When sex is experienced in healthy ways it adds great value and satisfaction to life, but when experienced in unhealthy ways, at the wrong time, it can damage vital aspects of who we are as human beings.”
Sex also releases chemicals in the brain. The authors write: “Sex is one of the strongest generators of the dopamine reward. For this reason, young people particularly are vulnerable to falling into a cycle of dopamine reward for potentially damaging sexual behavior. They can get hooked on it. But the beneficial effect of dopamine for the married couple is that sex may play a role in "addicting" them to each other and thus reinforcing their desire to remain together year after year.”
This was an excellent and challenging read. But it was written very academically. The information is tremendous but many people will find it difficult and technical to read. I would highly recommend this book. I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Written like a cautionary tale and academic study of teenage sexual years. Message is teenagers should stay away from any kind of sexual activity. It has experiences of both boys and girls in quotation marks throughout the book - and the girls / women all have bad experiences to report of having sex 'too soon,' while boys / men mostly suggest that the girl was into it too, and later started crying. So horrifying phenomena for both - as per this book.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.