Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult by Michelle Dowd

10 reviews

friedfae's review

dark sad slow-paced

2.5

Overall slow paced and jumped around in the timelines a lot, made it a bit difficult to follow. I thought there would be more information on the cult and how she got out, but it ended up being more surface level.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness

Moderate: Child abuse

kepompili's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

abijmieds's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Approachable but challenging, Dowd's childlike tone discomforts the reader in light of the dark experiences she shares. A continual reminder of her own youth at the time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death

rkanderton's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.5

The story was told in the present tense but then jumped around a lot so was sometimes hard to follow. I think I agree with other reviews that some of it felt quite surface level and didn’t really explain how things affected her and sort of glosses over a lot, however that may be down to memory and the fact that it was years and years of her life. It also would have been interesting to hear how she actually escaped and then integrated into the wider world, as the book doesn’t really go into detail about it. However, I can totally respect how difficult it must have been to relive all these things by telling her story, and that this book is authentic to Michelle and is written in a way that is comfortable for her to express herself and what happened to her, so in that regard I cannot fault it. To critique it at all feels disrespectful, and I can only admire her bravery and courage to share her experiences with the world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Torture

harperphillips96's review against another edition

dark informative tense slow-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

jackslackofshelfcontrol's review

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Minor: Ableism, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, and Suicide attempt

annajoyreed93's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Religious bigotry

peachy_dreamy's review

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

erinsampson91's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, and Death of parent

chovereads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense

wowwowowow this book was a wild ride. if you have religious and family trauma, tread carefully. fascinating and beautifully written and well worth the read if you can tolerate it.

the writing style and timeline was a bit confusing, I will say. sometimes it would jump around and I think it was intentional but I wasn’t sure at times where we were in the story. I loved the way she wrote from the POV of her child self — very matter of fact, telling us what she thought, what she was told, not interlacing her freed adult self into the writing. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting