rubyted's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse
rikkehenneberg's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
suadolaps's review against another edition
5.0
It’s everything I hoped for and more! So much heart, such beautiful writing - I’ll certainly be revisiting this ♥️
biaco's review against another edition
5.0
I just finished the audiobook and there are few words that can sum up reading this tragic story. Saying I "enjoyed" it would feel inappropriate but it was a brief but heavy journey into a daughter's perspective of her mother's pain and eventual demise at the hands of her abuser. There was a heaviness that lingered through this entire read that pulls you down into Natasha's world as she shares her love and grief.
booklvrkat's review against another edition
4.0
This was one of the easiest & hardest memoirs to read. Easy because the writing style is beautiful (this woman has such a vocabulary) and hard because I do not know that I would have come out of this beginning of life as strong as Natasha Trethewey has.
The story is told in 2 parts, ultimately it is about her & her relationship with her mom. She has banished 12 years of her life to a file cabinet in her brain that were the most horrible, ending with her mother's murder in 1985. One of the most poignant parts of the book is where she describes the long drives on interstate with her stepfather (as punishment) and he teaches her about how to spot unmarked police cars, and then later as she consults a map to see that Interstate 285 "bears the shape of an anatomical heart imprinted on the landscape..." In Part II she explains her fascination of Numerology and how it has forever been a type of faith for her, a belief in the mystical relationship between numbers and events. Fascinating. There are descriptions within the story where I can physically place myself, the groove of Morris Day & The Time, all of 1984, Valentine's Day 1984... it's all very powerful. This entire story is formidable. All of that said, this is a heart ripping memoir, and to this day you could move it forward and place it on any year of your choosing to see it still happening to women around the universe.
An ovation goes out to Cheryl Strayed for making this her first choice on Literati subscriptions, because I am sure it would have taken me way too long to move this one up on my TBR list. And you should not wait either.
The story is told in 2 parts, ultimately it is about her & her relationship with her mom. She has banished 12 years of her life to a file cabinet in her brain that were the most horrible, ending with her mother's murder in 1985. One of the most poignant parts of the book is where she describes the long drives on interstate with her stepfather (as punishment) and he teaches her about how to spot unmarked police cars, and then later as she consults a map to see that Interstate 285 "bears the shape of an anatomical heart imprinted on the landscape..." In Part II she explains her fascination of Numerology and how it has forever been a type of faith for her, a belief in the mystical relationship between numbers and events. Fascinating. There are descriptions within the story where I can physically place myself, the groove of Morris Day & The Time, all of 1984, Valentine's Day 1984... it's all very powerful. This entire story is formidable. All of that said, this is a heart ripping memoir, and to this day you could move it forward and place it on any year of your choosing to see it still happening to women around the universe.
An ovation goes out to Cheryl Strayed for making this her first choice on Literati subscriptions, because I am sure it would have taken me way too long to move this one up on my TBR list. And you should not wait either.
mzasadzinska's review against another edition
4.0
Trudno o tego typu książce powiedzieć, że się podobała. To trudna w odbiorze literatura, ale jedna z tych potrzebnych - o bólu, utracie, przemocy, traumie. Pomaga w ułożeniu tego wszystkiego w sobie. Jest świetnie napisana, szybko się ją czyta i na pewno pozostanie na długo...