What a stark summary of a life.
Facing up to the extreme impact of hands-off parenting when it combined with falling in with the wrong crowd and taking on the wrong lessons about manhood.
I felt broken on his behalf at the Parole Board hearing.
The change Paul has made to his life, he is clear he has made with the assistance and support of many, but it is still HIS change - others might not have made it even with the same opportunities presented to them.

I found the self-help bits a little preachy, Paul is deeply in to Stoic philosophy, but they also still taught me something. And the autobiographical portions are intense.

“Life isn't about finding yourself life is about creating yourself”
Fascinating and insightful story. All based on real events and not just being in a real prison but the prison of ones mind. How disordered thinking can influence a population. A friend recommended this to me and I’m glad she did. What a story.

Good story of bravery and redemption. Dr Woods is an amazing speaker (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjjlsW1MDmc) and an inspirational, hard-working, person. That he comes from just down the road from me is a bonus, but this is well worth a read to support local authors.

Curiosity finally got the best of me with this book. I met Paul some time ago (before this book was published) when he facilitated a leadership workshop I attended. Fast-forward a few years, and I started seeing this book pop up in libraries and book shops. Everyone loves a good redemption story, and even better if you have met the person, right? Right. However, this book stands on its own merits (i.e. without my familiarity bias). Paul is an excellent writer and story-teller, and his story is impressive. I found the sections on his five steps to escape (self-imposed mental) prisons less compelling than the autobiographical bits, but they still had useful insights. All up, a great read.

On one hand we have a Memoir of time in prison for murder. On the other hand we have a self help book.
I went into this wondering if the author would have enough insight to critically assess his own life, the decisions that led him to be in prison, and the privilege that allowed him to complete tertiary education. There was one paragraph in the entire book where he acknowledged that his being white gave him opportunities that non white prisoners may not have, both in prison and after release. There was also a lot of cherry picking of psychology and philosophy that supported his trajectory. Very little about what shaped him to become a murderer at 18, other than a lot of talk about how violence was acceptable in the 80s, and therefore he was a product of his environment, plus dying mother, SA etc.
I also noticed several references to his victim maybe being a paedophile, in a way that seemed to be an attempt to shift some of the responsibility onto him for being murdered. And only one or two references to the impact of the loss of life.
Overall, yes this is a great redemption story, but it feels somewhat calculated into moulding the reader's view of the author which came off an inauthentic to me. I'm sure that he has enough knowledge for him to realise this.

Paul Wood has lead a life very different to mine, and what he writes about was a completely foreign and rather terrifying experience of crime, drugs, and prison. It was inspiring to see how education and the support of good people around him made it possible for him to become reformed and reintegrate to society. The book shows how difficult that is and how our prisons aren’t set up for more people to do that, which is a sad reflection on our society and justice system.