Why do some people overcome adversity while others get stuck? What core aspects of the human spirit help us overcome tragedy and grow from it? Poignant and powerful, Andrea’s honest journey through life’s most challenging circumstances answers these questions and serves as a guide for all who are searching for a path forward and a purpose-driven life.
Interweaving inspirational personal narratives with beautiful poetry, The Way Gargoyles Play takes the reader on a journey to healing and wholeheartedness that lends itself to a happier, more fulfilled life. With clearly defined takeaways in each section of memoir, this book is a guide to finding one’s own path to the inherent human qualities of kindness, forgiveness, perseverance, faith, courage, and self-acceptance. Each poem symbolically expresses these experiences through mesmerizing spoken word and imagery. Cadelli’s courageousness in telling deeply painful and challenging stories from her own life opens us to the healing power of vulnerability. She allows us to share in the healing process that led her from anguish and despair to joyfulness and fulfillment, and in so doing, invites us to find our own way. With a unique and clear voice, Cadelli demonstrates that a full and happy life is ours to cultivate for ourselves if we own our own truths and choose new paths. To assist in this process, the book provides a powerful six-step process to help eliminate the negative forces in your life so you can move through adversity and towards a brighter, happier future.
Learn more and listen to samples of her poetry performances @ www.andreacadelli.com/gargoyles
"The Way Gargoyles Play is raw, honest, and poweful. Cadelli shares her journey in life, a journey often filled with loss and pain. She then shares how she found the path to healing and Divine Joy. The book is incredibly uplifting.” ~Roslyn Harrison
"Andrea Cadelli's The Way Gargoyles Play is a journey through loss, fear and ultimate triumph. Written with a storyteller's voice and compelling honesty, Cadelli bravely shares her lessons and her helpful heart.” ~Linda Orban
"I loved The Way Gargoyles Play and the incredible journey the reader takes with Cadelli through her most challenging, yet rewarding experiences. Though unimaginable, it is told in such a beautiful and approachable way that it becomes almost tangible. What really touched my heart and soul was the vulnerability of her openness in pursuit of helping others. I felt with her, and it was beautiful!” ~John Morris
"The Way Gargoyles Play draws you into each of Andrea's stories so you feel you are there with her. She leads you on the jouney with her from the depths of her lowest points to her victories of finding her way out. You feel her pain as well as her joy. It is so well written you feel yourself standing beside her looking out of her Noni's kitchen window watching the sunset. This wonderful book not only tells you how Andrea overcame her own life's struggles but gives you the tools and directions to help you through your own." ~Dianne Marshall
"Not knowing what to expect from The Way Gargoyles Play, I sat down to read and was instantly hooked. Cadelli is a divine storyteller - her tone and transparency are compelling - and she uses her personal stories to provide the backdrop to her poetry. It is a unique combination I enjoyed and had not encountered before. I easily identified with many of the thematic emotions examined - grief, love, guilt, frustration, among others - and expect others will too. Thank you Andrea for candidly sharing your story and letting others know that it's okay to be stuck and that there IS a way over the hurdles that life provides along the way." ~Amazon Customer
Book's Prose:
"This book boasts an intelligent, thoughtful, kind, and honest voice. The writing features engaging analogies and lovely turns of phrase scattered throughout."
Book's Character Development:
"The characters are real, and they feel real. Descriptions of personality quirks, flaws, and qualities are especially well done.
"The addition of spoken word poetry and hyperlinks is a nice touch."
Total Book Score (out of 10): 7.25
The Way Gargoyles Play by Andrea Britt Cadelli is a moving and comprehensive work of self-help about overcoming personal suffering and achieving happiness. After her younger brother died, Cadelli found herself in a spiral of suffering, and here she tells how she lifted herself out of the cycle. The book also includes Cadelli’s evocative poetry covering many of these same themes.
Cadelli talks passionately and eloquently about finding happiness in an oftentimes depressing world. One doesn’t have to be a depressive to find modern life daunting, and when you add real personal trauma to the mix, as Cadelli herself has experienced, one must have some sort of path of self-awareness and coping mechanism to deal with life’s hardships. Far from seeming like a tome for those who need to get over trauma, this book is a handbook on happiness for everyone.
There are a lot of self-help manuals that cover these sorts of issues, so it can be hard to find the best among the lot, but The Way Gargoyles Play is truly different. Part memoir, she calls her life experience to attention to serve as an example. Everyone’s personal issues may be different in some regard, but there are commonalities that do bind as all.
As Cadelli is a poet, she tackles the issues of self-negation and self-empowerment with a poet’s eye. This isn’t to say her writing is overly purple, but the book is written with a sense of vulnerability and openness that you’ll also find in good poetry – which, it should be said, is the case for her poetry as well. Strikingly, she also writes with the eye of a scientist, making this a fully-realized and useful work that should help people in their daily lives.
