Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot

88 reviews

readingpicnic's review

5.0

Stellar audiobook performance, and an incredible writing style unlike any I've encountered before. I love unabashedly honest memoirs, especially those that dip into the weird and messy. I think that I judged this book by its cover and expected it to be soft poetry, but it was shocking, flagrant, in-your-face storytelling with a poetic flare that I could not put down. I felt like a kitten being carried around by the scruff of my neck listening to this while my mother cat runs down a treacherous path, enjoying the ride but also being like ahhhhh!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

bear_ridge_tarot's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective

4.5

 The memoir of a powerful Indigenous woman’s coming of age in the Pacific Northwest. It is a weaving of grief, trauma, abuse, and the complexities of being Native told in such a way that makes the reader feel it all. I listened to this on audiobook narrated by Rainy Fields and could not have been more enthralled with the flow of the story. The struggles of mental health, combined with post-traumatic stress disorder, lends weight to the book which is already heavy with emotion. 

Rainy Fields narrates this with compassion and passion. The tone was perfection, invoking every emotion with perfection. It made the experience more heartfelt than if I’d only read the novel. The rawness of this stream-of-consciousness type story is a type of perfection that cannot come from something more polished. It tells the story of a miserable life, yes, but one that also includes survival and a unique understanding of the inner landscape that isn’t easy to earn. When you read a memoir, especially one penned by the subject, it tends to be neutral in judgment, or even overly flattering. That is not the case with Heart Berries. It is a cathartic, brutally honest telling of a life lived. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Self harm, and Alcohol

Minor: Incest and Abortion

shewasreadergrl's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

This book was heartbreaking and heart broken. Beautiful, honest prose.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

theboricuabookworm's review against another edition

Gripping and raw. The lyrical way Mailhot writes about pain and trauma and grief will leave you gasping.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

mdavis26's review against another edition

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Incest, Mental illness, Self harm, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

dogswithnogs's review

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

5.0

Raw and emotional, read trigger warnings especially if you have children

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Alcoholism

carnimdream's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Racism, Violence, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Chronic illness and Abortion

emilyb84's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Racism

akgrantmatz's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

3.25

I don't know if this style is for me. The prose is incredible, and the story, anger, and honesty are important. But the brutal honesty and lack of a sense of Terese as a person almost reads to me as dehumanizing. The substance of the book is difficult, but the voice is uncomfortable.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Abortion, and Alcohol

Minor: Eating disorder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

lureads2's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

3.5

Beautiful writing, important insights into indigeneity, native womanhood, trauma, and motherhood; but while the book is marketed as an exploration of the author's bipolar disorder and PTSD, the book ended up focusing mainly on the author's many fraught relationships with dissappointing men, which was frustrating to read about. Further, the author's criticisms of the mental health system were often shallow and trite, and fell flat for me. Nonetheless, this book holds stark and devastating revelations about what it means to be an indigenous woman, the experience of trauma and PTSD, the joys and horrors of grappling with Indigenous identity and with motherhood; so overall this is an important and well written book, as long as you are ready to explore these themes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, and Alcohol