Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Broken by Jenny Lawson

7 reviews

okiecozyreader's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

This was the third Jenny Lawson book I read this summer. I got a copy from her at her bookstore. Her husband came up to me and asked me if I would like her to sign it and that he would get her for me. I didn’t know much about her at the time, but he insisted and she did come and sign it. She told me it was the first in person signing she had done since Covid (fall of 2021). She was lovely and commented on my momadvice shirt, telling me the authors on the shirt she was friends with. After reading her three books (finally) this summer, I wish I could go back to that moment, but since I can’t, I’m grateful for it.

In this one, she goes even deeper into her experiences and troubles with depression and health insurance, treatments and ups and downs. Some of it felt like journal entries sprinkled with her light-hearted ramblings that made me laugh. I ended up listening to much of it on my trip. I have struggled some with anxiety and depression for much of my life, but not to the extent Jenny writes about in this book. If you don’t have the experience, I feel like this might help people understand the suffering some go through. I do think it is courageous for her to tell her stories and read them out loud - I wonder how painful the process really is - reliving the treatments and such. She mentions her family traveling without her bc of her personal pain, and how some treatments have allowed her to finally travel with her daughter. So grateful for that.

The book also has some illustrations and photos scattered throughout. The audio ends with a chapter that tells how she did the audio in her closet during the 2020 lockdown. Both versions are terrific in different ways. I also love the last chapter about the cover illustration: 

“… I’ve never seen a collection of art that more perfectly encapsulates how I felt about my own battle with depression and anxiety and the monsters in my head. 
My personal beasties are ugly and ridiculous and they weigh me down and are exhausting to carry around. Sometimes it feels like they are larger than I am…
…
And yet, there is something wonderful in embracing the peculiar and extraordinary monsters that make us unique.” P281, 282

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Chronic illness, and Medical trauma

irisameliareads's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Chronic illness, Dementia, and Medical trauma

qrschulte's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

This book is just as enjoyable and funny as her first two, but boy was it also soooo sad at parts. Highly recommend the audiobook, read by Lawson herself. And to anyone who says our healthcare system is fine and doesn’t need reform, I request you read Chapter 9: An Open Letter to My Insurance Company, and then tell me the US HAS a really great system. A favorite quote from the book: “If simple words fixed terrible things, then terrible things wouldn’t exist.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Dementia, Excrement, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Blood, Animal death, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Gore

jpbacik's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Chronic illness, Mental illness, and Cursing

Moderate: Cursing, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

Jenny Lawson is the best. While I've adored every book of hers, this one is especially funny, poignant, relatable, and beautiful.

kimveach's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Self harm, Cursing, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

caseythereader's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

4.0

 - I've been reading Jenny Lawson's writing for over a decade now. She's always been able to bounce between the absurd with the serious, and to find the absurdities within the serious things.
- She writes so clearly about what it's like to live with depression and anxiety, and how those conditions can so easily swallow your entire life - even when you're on the other side of it and are dealing with the financial and social fallout.
- Much less taxidermy in this book than previous books, just a heads up in case that's the reason you love her, lol. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

xandraj's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Animal death, Chronic illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Dementia, Ableism, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Rape, Self harm, and Sexual content

Description of animal slaughter, several mentions of insects/spiders