Reviews

The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family by Lindsay Wong

ywoy's review

4.0

That last 100 pages went by so slow, like all the worst r/justnoMIL posts back to back. The pacing was like a wild cyclone folding in on itself and it became exhausting to keep up with but is also my favourite thing about it. Heart of darkness in coquitlam and kurtz is a first gen chinese canadian mom.

leigheldridge's review

dark emotional medium-paced

3.5

isamulti's review

1.0

Abandon.
Après le quart du livre je dois me rendre à l'évidence que je m'ennuie. Au suivant!

msvenner's review

4.0

This is too messed up to be fiction! I enjoyed Wong’s description of her outwardly normal but inwardly deeply fucked up family. Her writing is blunt and, at times, shocking. It is hard to believe children could be raised in this way in a suburb of Vancouver. This book reminds me of The Glass Castle but without the rural poverty. Truth truly can be stranger than fiction.

kingsamong's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

sashdb's review

3.0

Caustic, heart-breaking, mind-bending, remarkable depiction of the havoc of generational mental illness.

emedgar's review

challenging dark emotional

4.5

lifeinpoetry's review against another edition

4.0

I'm unsure of how to rate this book. I haven't seen many Canadian-Chinese memoirs regarding mental illness and this is such a dysfunctional, abusive family I don't think I can judge the use of dark, mean humor from a survivor of such a family but it was a difficult read as both a daughter of immigrants (not Chinese) and being a part of a dysfunctional family.

ah_bee_'s review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

3.5

dorayang's review

4.0

Stranger than fiction, this is a very intriguing memoir on a family that most people rarely have a glimpse at.