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piotr_szymczak's review
dark
funny
informative
sad
medium-paced
5.0
A series of raw, searing essays from a person with a highly unusual background, and a powerful indictment of the way working class people are treated in American society. Searing injustices described with dark humour.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
garbitchdisposal's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual assault
nika_reads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
I found Lauren through her viral article about being a cable guy/blue collar worker with PTSD as a lesbian. When I learned that she got a book deal I immediately put it on my TBR list and it doesn't disappoint. Every essay is a brutally honest accounts of her life growing up in a cult, her integration into "real life" not once but twice, her experience and discharge from the air force after receiving death threats and being the victim of arson.
Hough does not paint herself as a victim or a martyr or someone who is now in a better place because she was able to make good decisions. She's honest about her shortcomings, which combined with the lack of resources and being trapped in systems that consistently make it impossible for her to reach a maintainable lifestyle leave her in vulnerable to most.
Is Hough someone I would want to hang out with? Probably not. But she's a good a writer with a very compelling story that examines the pitfalls of her own mental health and the systems of America.
Hough does not paint herself as a victim or a martyr or someone who is now in a better place because she was able to make good decisions. She's honest about her shortcomings, which combined with the lack of resources and being trapped in systems that consistently make it impossible for her to reach a maintainable lifestyle leave her in vulnerable to most.
Is Hough someone I would want to hang out with? Probably not. But she's a good a writer with a very compelling story that examines the pitfalls of her own mental health and the systems of America.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Sexual assault
quassibly's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
fast-paced
5.0
Lauren Hough and I share almost nothing in background or experience, but her circular thought process with it's frequent digressions that seem unrelated until she brings it all back around to connect in a way that feels entirely organic.
Separately, her essays each impart in insight into the world at large, seen through the lens of Hough's experiences -- being told that she can only be good if she conforms to a standard, being hurt by people who tell her it's for her own good, and finding herself powerless in a world where poverty is the ultimate shame. Taken together, they tell the story of a woman who fighting to figure out how to create her own standards with only her anger and her wit to arm her.
Separately, her essays each impart in insight into the world at large, seen through the lens of Hough's experiences -- being told that she can only be good if she conforms to a standard, being hurt by people who tell her it's for her own good, and finding herself powerless in a world where poverty is the ultimate shame. Taken together, they tell the story of a woman who fighting to figure out how to create her own standards with only her anger and her wit to arm her.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Abortion, and Pregnancy
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