Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

76 reviews

deadwhiterabbit's review

dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Excrement, and Abortion

wanderlust_romance's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

Food as a connection vehicle to culture and memory is one of my very favorite concepts. And Crying in H Mart explores this with nuance throughout the narrative. Standing in an overly bright grocery aisle surrounded by endless packages of ramyun; assaulted by the scents of banchan in the refrigerated section; struggling to recall her mother's preferred brand of soy or fish sauce among a sea of choices. As Zauner vividly recounts the heart breaking and gut wrenching realities of caring for their terminally ill mother until her death, they provide care through their mother's favored Korean foods. Prior to their mother's illness and the fraught relationship during their teenage and early adult years, Zauner employs food to dive into memories of eating, care, extended family, and travel. If you are also interested in the complexities of "mother wounds," Crying in H Mart reflects on this with multi-faceted emotions. It's complicated and messy and hurtful and loving all at once.

Crying in H Mart also reflects thoughtfully on identity, as Zauner grapples with grief and their Korean-ness as a biracial person. Contemplating broad questions such as: Am I Korean enough? How do I connect with my Korean culture and relatives when the critical person who used to guide me through it is gone? How can I voice these reflections to my surviving parent? Will they even understand? Unmoored in a sea of grief, Zauner turns to cooking Korean dishes as a form of therapy/coping mechanism. Diligently following the recipes and instructions of YouTube star Maangchi, Zauner finds comfort in making the dishes and banchan her mother favored. (I loved this as a fellow Maangchi fan who watches her channel and cooks from her cookbooks <3)

The writing is vivid and lyrical, but at times difficult to follow on audio as it veered into stream of consciousness territory.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Vomit, Medical content, and Gaslighting

Minor: Body shaming

hufflepuffbiologybuff's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.25

The relationship between mother and daughter is honestly refreshing. I think some of us can relate. Some of the things said in anger to each other was inappropriate, which is often the case though the mom made a really low blow that stuck with me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Drug use, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racism, Excrement, and Car accident

Minor: Cursing, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Abortion

sophiesometimesreads's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

I don't rate memoirs but this was amazingly written and had such a profound effect on me. It has to be one of my favourite memoirs, despite not knowing who Michelle Zauner was prior to reading. I loved how raw Michelle was in her retelling of her and her parents' story, how she exposed the good and parts of herself in a way that was innately human. An interesting and complex representation of mother-daughter relationships and growing up Korean-American. At first, I wasn't sure about the non-linear retelling and, though maybe we did rehash the same events a couple times, I think it worked in favour of the story Michelle was portraying.

I would recommend this to anyone looking for a deep, emotional and real memoir, even if you aren't familiar with the author herself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Body shaming

Minor: Infidelity and Abortion

jessi_c's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I went into this with the full intention of not knowing anything about the premise or the author. And what an absolute joy and privilege to get to know this small family. A galaxy made from violence, gravity, and time. And the world receives every form of art that has grown from this grief in grand abundance. I will happily help to carry the weight and celebrate her life. I see her mother in my mother.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Death of parent

Moderate: Mental illness, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Body shaming, and Drug abuse

laurenlsmith's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Death and Medical content

Minor: Body shaming

ieotter13's review

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

what a gorgeous book, words flowing from story to story, a deeply personal insight into michelle’s life and journey through grief. 

the haverford and bryn mawr references towards the beginning were pretty cool to know — 100% a must read for bico students 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Blood, Vomit, Car accident, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse and Abortion

llams's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

what an amazing and honest ode to her mother and korean food. it felt honest and gut wrenchingly real

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abortion

aksmith92's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

I don't really love rating memoirs—these books are when humans talk about their lives, the people in them, and usually challenging events. Memoirs usually do or do not do it for me in terms of a great reading experience, and Crying in H Mart did it for me.

Michelle Zauner talks about her upbringing in this memoir—she's living a decent life and recognizes that, but somehow does not get along super well with her parents, particularly her mom. I don't know about you, but as a teenage girl once, this was highly relatable.

More importantly, though, this memoir talks about Michelle's identity as a half-Korean woman, trying to find solstice and being in the food she grew up hearing about and/or eating. She struggles regularly with her identity since she barely speaks the Korean language and only visits Korea every so often. And most important, this book is about dealing with grief and, acknowledging and accepting your past, and moving on from it during traumatic times. There is no mystery or spoiler here: Michelle talks about her family's experience with her mother's cancer diagnosis.

Michelle feels real in this book. She makes decisions you question and doesn't always know the answer. However, the heart in this book is so apparent, and it is simply moving. Not to mention all the incredible references to Korean recipes—this was SO good to add. 

I do feel the 50-70% dragged just a little bit, but overall, this was an incredibly captivating story about a woman finding her own identity in massive grief while leaning on some of the most amazing food recipes she can to feel in her place and with her family. Highly recommend this memoir! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cancer, Cursing, Racism, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Fatphobia, Abortion, and Alcohol

Minor: Addiction

Addiction = not described, but talked about when describing someone's past. Also implied with a potential alcohol addiction.

flashandoutbreak's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent