Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere by Maria Bamford

19 reviews

finnsnowbevi's review against another edition

emotional inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Bullying, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Police brutality, Dementia, Medical trauma, Abortion, Alcohol, and Classism

stroudle's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

5.0

I have been a long time fan of Maria’s comedy and went into this book expecting some greater understanding of her as a person and a couple laughs. I got so much more. It is honest and introspective. There are very transparent stories of her experience with OCD and I found it challenging to listen to at these parts but pushed through because it felt she was speaking to my exact experiences. 

Maria makes sure to keep herself and the listener grounded with sometime dark, sometimes light hearted, sometimes both comic relief. I listened to this while cleaning and making dinner after work and it was cathartic. I would personally recommend listening as all visual elements are in a pdf and you get to hear neat special effects and all the amazing Maria voices you may know and have come to love or have not yet heard and will soon love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Body shaming, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.5

This was a hilarious, incredibly dark, and blisteringly honest account of living with mental illness by legendary comedian Maria Bamford.

If you're not familiar with her work, I would highly recommend watching some of her standup before committing to the full book - the utter blackness of her humour can be very confronting and may not be for everyone.

As a Maria Bamford fan, it's everything you could hope for. I listened to this with every spare moment I had over a few days and struggled to tear myself away from it.

I listened to the audiobook despite having bought a signed copy of this book at one of her shows. I will probably read the physical copy at some point to compare, but I adored the audio version (she does all the voices!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

jackie_reads_314's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

Bamford does an amazing job being both hilarious and serious as she recounts her many tries, and failures, throughout her career. She has given me hope to seek more resources for myself as well as inspiration to advocate for those who might not have the will or strength to do so at the moment. Her poignant and relatable takes on recovery, combined with her countless experiences, illuminate the varying levels of "okay" we can all tend to fall on. I wish to talk her ear off and would be delighted to read anything else she writes! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Death of parent

junglejelly's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

A dark and self depricating humour used in reflection of mental health.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, especially as I listened to a version read by Bamford herself. I just wish it had been longer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Mental illness, and Death of parent

Moderate: Body shaming and Eating disorder

Minor: Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

abicaro17's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

4.0

This is one of the better memoirs i've listened too. I think Maria is hilarious and I'd totally go to her show. Again the book ends a little abruptly but I think the formatting is fun. The chapters are divided up into separate "cults" and chunks of her life. I appreciate that she keeps the timeline pretty easy to follow and describes what's happening year wise as well. I think I would have appreciated more of a conclusion other than her own twelve step program creation. The PDF of pictures and all the recipes were such a cute addition! I'd definitely recommend this as a good starter memoir. Very easy to listen to and funny while being serious. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

rsksmith's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

I cheated and gave this 5.75 stars and if I could give it a million I would! 
Maria Bamford is one of my all time favorite comedians, so I didn’t doubt this would be great (and I was right to…not doubt? I guess?).

The audiobook is performed so well, it’s like a long comedy set but also very earnest and relatable. The way she speaks about her intrusive thoughts and inner dialogue is so so relatable.

I immediately want to watch Lady Dynamite again although the revelation that it was so challenging/draining for her to make also makes me feel guilty. BUT it’s already been filmed so when you think about it it I DONT watch it again then it’s like she suffered for nothing. 
So.
Bye!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Animal death, Grief, and Death of parent

This is the best memoir I’ve ever read. Granted I’ve maybe read two memoirs ever, but still.

al3xa's review against another edition

dark emotional funny medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal death, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Grief, and Alcohol

jessieraeyo's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cancer, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

madamenovelist's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Death, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic