ra22ouille's review
5.0
The beginning was the weakest part with some areas feeling less immersive.
Graphic: Medical content, Cancer, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Excrement
Minor: Alcoholism
eatingbrains's review against another edition
2.5
It was alright. I teared up a few times. The descriptions of food were verbose and evocative, sometimes excessively so. I love Maangchi.
This is a story of grief and mourning, of finding your identity and how it changes as you grow, relationships and connections.
Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Alcohol, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Death, Excrement, and Fatphobia
Minor: Abortion, Body shaming, Drug use, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Car accident, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Eating disorder, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Sexism
mirandyli's review
5.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Excrement, Abortion, Drug use, Medical content, Misogyny, Cancer, Colonisation, Death, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Addiction, Car accident, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Grief, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Infidelity, and Racism
aecatec's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Medical content, Death of parent, and Cancer
imaginaryisobel's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Cancer, Grief, Death, Vomit, Medical content, Excrement, and Death of parent
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Addiction
Minor: Infidelity and Abortion
bayleereads's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Cancer, Death of parent, Medical content, and Grief
sharrikloves's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Vomit, Death of parent, Death, Cancer, and Medical content
elsebeok's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Cancer, Grief, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Medical content, Alcoholism, and Death
authorbrittanibee's review
However, I still find myself struggling to give a star rating for her memoir. I believe this is primarily because her story shines a light directly onto my own life and the recent struggles I have found myself facing in regards to the parent/ child dynamic and the issues that stem from generational trauma.
While reading this memoir, I found (and highlighted) many instances where the dynamics between Michelle and her mother (and sometimes her father) felt toxic or uncomfortable. Of course, I must note that I read this story through a very specific lens having recently decided to cut ties with both of my parents. But--from my outside perspective--the dynamics within this family did not seem the most healthy and caused me a mixture of frustration and heartbreak when Michelle turned the blame onto herself.
I literally had to close this book for a few weeks as it became too much for me to read. The enmeshed relationship between mother and daughter felt too similar to my own, which left me emotionally drained.
In the end, my takeaway from this book is that the parent/ child relationship is one of the most complex relationships we will ever experience in our lives and everyone views it differently, oftentimes vastly. We can never truly know or understand the feelings that run deep within the relationships between families outside of our own, nor can we (or should we) judge any person's choice to stay within those dynamics or leave them entirely. And to add in an additional layer of becoming a parental caretaker complicates matters even more, creating a large, swirling vortex of feelings that may never become untangled.
I thoroughly enjoyed Michelle's thoughtful and emotional portrayal of her complex relationship with her mother and how they grew closer together during a time of great crisis, but also how the early loss of her mother left a mixture of grief and questions and an unsteady path forward.
Graphic: Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Grief, Medical content, Abortion, Death of parent, and Body shaming
abreadsbooks's review
3.75
Graphic: Death, Medical content, and Death of parent
Moderate: Grief and Cancer