Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Forgotten Girls: An American Story by Monica Potts

6 reviews

mondovertigo's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Addiction, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Toxic friendship, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Pregnancy and Racism

Minor: Abortion, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, and Suicidal thoughts

cghegan's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Addiction, Death, Car accident, and Alcohol

Minor: Abandonment, Grief, Suicide attempt, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Physical abuse

bschweig717's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

This was a heartbreaking, illuminating, and vulnerable piece of memoir. I am thankful to have read it. I feel like I saw myself in many of the people in it at times. It was heartbreaking and also illuminating about the importance of community for each of us to thrive.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Self harm, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Grief, Drug use, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Suicide, Abandonment, and Addiction

rootedreader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy to read. 
Monica Potts sets out to investigate the causes of poverty, specifically the poverty of women from rural areas of America. Overall I enjoyed this book, one of my top genres to read is investigative journalism. Though listed as memoir, my experience reading this was somewhere in the middle. Connecting several systemic issues, she describes a situation that leaves many opportunities for someone to "fall into" and stay in poverty. The memoir side of the book was a bit difficult for me. Comparing her and her best friend's life choices it came across as judgmental-towards her friend as well as the town. The last chapter or two threw me for a loop as well as (*SPOILER*) she moved back to that same town she spent the whole book criticizing.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Drug abuse

debussy's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

I am a white woman not far off from the author’s age and grew up in the Arkansas Ozarks. So much of this book felt like reading about my own life—the relentless isolation, conservatism, and xenophobia of the area as well as the driving need to leave it while developing a strange, complicated relationship with it afterward are so on point. The way the area is a deeply messed up patriarchy steeped with religion makes women scapegoats—there to be blamed or used by the men who have little in their lives except the ability to control others. This is a sad, compelling, and unfortunately accurate portrait of a place I still love. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Addiction, Alcoholism, Classism, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Child death, Death of parent, and Misogyny

Minor: Miscarriage and Physical abuse

sjanke2's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Addiction, Car accident, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, and Medical content