Critics pan Russell Brand's new faith-based memoir: 'An unbelievable slog'

Mainstream reviews of Russell Brand's new faith-based memoir, titled How to Become a Christian in 7 Days, have been largely negative, with some accusing the British comedian of writing a rambling and self-absorbed slog that one reviewer called "an offense against God."

Published Tuesday by Tucker Carlson Books as the imprint's first title, the book was panned by outlets such as The New Statesman, which called Brand's book "unreadable," his conversion "more cult-like than Christlike," and the author himself "broken, complex, confused, sinful, self-interested, blind to his own faults, taking from scripture what suits him and discarding the rest."

The critic for The New Statesman, an outlet Brand once guest-edited in 2023, acknowledged some flashes of humble insight from Brand, but that they don't redeem the whole of his book.

Christopher Howse, a columnist for The Telegraph, called Brand's book "an offense against God" and gave it zero stars, saying that reading it was "like being locked in an empty pub all night with a garrulous drunk. Except that Brand is now sober. His prose is the way he thinks, which is the frightening thing."

Howse accused Brand of infusing his memoir with "lewd jokes and word-vomit prose," and that his "account of his conversion is enough to put anyone off Christianity."

"It is criminally painful to read and it is not a victimless crime," Howse wrote. "The poor fool of a reader suffers, but the victim I feel most sorry for is God."

Howse claimed Brand's "word-vomiting" exhibits "pressure of speech fueled by a flight of ideas. Both are characteristic of the hypomanic phase of bipolar disorder, which Brand says he has suffered from, and both can characterize cocaine use, with which he says he has also been familiar. It is not a good frame of mind in which to write a book."

The Times mocked the book as "the paranoid, pseudy gospel of Russell Brand" and described it as "repetitious, self-involved, paranoid and poorly structured, and such an unbelievable slog to get through despite being short." The critic for The Times echoed complaints regarding Brand's verbose prose style, writing, "Brand has swallowed a dictionary, and it is not coming out again via his mouth."

Unherd, another U.K.-based outlet, labeled Brand's book as the "biggest stroke of luck atheism has had in a while," and dismissed it as a pretext for Brand to talk about himself.

The outlet's critic described Brand's prose style as "lunatic" and "so unbearable it eclipses every other consideration. To call this a stream of consciousness is an insult to consciousness — it feels more like a fugue state."

Not all reviews of Brand's book were entirely negative. In a YouTube video titled "I Read Russell Brand's New Christian Book So You Don't Have To," Christian podcaster Jon Harris acknowledged some the positive elements of Brand's conversion story, but warned that "the book mixes truth with serious theological errors, New Age influences, and a dangerous conflation of political 'red-pilling' with genuine spiritual regeneration."

Brand, who was baptized as a Christian in April 2024 with the help of Bear Grylls in the River Thames, has drawn skepticism regarding the authenticity of his conversion, which came barely six months after a joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4'sDispatches reported on allegations from four women who accused Brand of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse.

Brand has denied the "very serious criminal allegations" and acknowledged that while he was "very, very promiscuous" in the past, his sexual encounters were "always consensual." He will stand trial to rape and sexual assault allegations related to six women later this year.