Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Good Morning Monster: Five Heroic Journeys to Recovery by Catherine Gildiner

26 reviews

redheadbookgirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

This book. 😮‍💨 This book is 𝗻𝗼𝘁 for the faint of heart and is probably one of the heaviest books I’ve ever read, in terms of material. I cannot stress enough: check the content warnings prior to reading!

Horrifying, astounding and heart wrenching, and yet also fascinating, moving and compelling, this book looks at the true stories of five of Gildiner’s most testing + profound patients. The book is format into five sections, one dedicated to each patient, which allows the reader to become completely immersed in each story. 

The physical + emotional trauma these five patients went through is completely unimaginable, and I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn’t fiction. Having said that, the incredible resilience they showed and the power of therapy was mind-blowing and I was completely amazed by each patient’s strength and journey of progression. 

I also found it very refreshing to read about Gildiner taking accountability for her mistakes and learning curves throughout her career and educating herself where she lacked knowledge to allow her to help her patients best. 

This is by far one of the most difficult and graphic books I’ve ever read, but if you’re in the right head space and this is something that interests you, I highly recommend reading it!

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𝑬𝒇𝒇𝒚 @𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍 ☁️ 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Cultural appropriation, and Abandonment

michellebub's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring slow-paced

2.75

CHECK THE TRIGGER WARININGS

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Deadnaming, Eating disorder, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Transphobia

alleemartin's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

makinzimyers's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

lauraliz914's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

I absolutely adored this book. I think it’s a more clinically dense, depth-oriented version of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone which I also loved. However, it is not for the faint of heart. I can’t really think of a content warning that wouldn’t apply to this book, so consider yourself warned.

I was so deeply moved by each and every one of these stories. Each person went through hell and are, as Gildiner says, psychological heroes. This book really spells out both the harm people are capable of doing, as well as the resiliency we all possess.

I so appreciate Gildiner’s raw honesty about her own countertransference in each case, including her clinical missteps and clear love for her clients. Her narrative taught me so much about the psychodynamic approach to therapy, and even about my own subconscious processes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Eating disorder, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide attempt, and Murder

katiejohns's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

kathrynclaire's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, and Suicide attempt

tessazwaan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

3.0

Okay tbh I loved this book for its readability - easy to read (tbf very intense traumatic stories so look at the trigger warnings first), very interesting and the cases so extreme that you want to  keep reading. However, to me it was problematic too, which is why I give this only three stars. 

First and foremost, I hate the emphasis on being “strong” (read: cope with excessive working, shutting off feelings and function “normally” in a kapitalist society). The sentence “She had to be tough, otherwise she would have formed a disorder” perfectly describes the tone of the book. 

Secondly, as a therapist, I feel like you should refrain from labelling people’s feeling as “whiny” or “needy”, especially since the people being called whiny and needy were severely abused. Sentences along the lines of “I wish people could hear this story when they are in my office complaining about insignificant childhood events” just don’t sit right with me. It’s disrespectful and lacks empathy, especially coming from a clinical psychologist. 

Third, there is some transphobia in this book. There’s deadnaming someone, only referring to her as a her after her surgeries and seeing a transgender woman explicitly as someone who could fulfill both a male and female role. I could have really done without that part, it also felt super unnecessary to add, since she wasn’t even a main character. 

Last but not least, how do you get consent to publish a life story from a dead man? Especially one from an Indigenous culture where keeping low profile is key? And this story was detailled as fuck? It felt just like she picked the most extreme stories to put in her book so her book could get as much shock effect as possible. 

So yeah, for me those issues took this from a five star review to three. I would recommend to read Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottlieb over this book any day. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

florapants84's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

sarahkate22's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal death, Body shaming, Cancer, Infidelity, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Car accident