Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot

7 reviews

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, and Colonisation

mayaism_01's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

This was gut punch, after gut punch, after gut punch. I feel like I’ve been shattered into a million little pieces and I will never recover from this. I don’t think I’ve ever been possessed with so much anger while reading a book. I loved this so much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Eating disorder, Vomit, and Abortion

stevia333k's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

3.5

usually I consider Adrienne Rich references to be an immediate DNF & didn't do so this time because it was only cited as an inspiration at the very end. In fact, the blurb my library gave in retrospect is basically trying to spin the Andrienne Rich influence -- that being said, besides some squicks, it was decent.

So this is by an author who wanted to challenge expectations about works written by indigenous authors. (I didn't pick up on how besides various marketable narratives -- i mean this in the way that both karl marx & the austrian school of economics are considered "controversial".)

Anyways, I read the book on the basis of family building & decolonization. The part about forgiveness being done in ceremonies instead of the white idea of "letting go", especially since I've struggled with that colonial dynamic too, except as a white settler I didn't have established ceremonies for context.

Admittedly I was kind of indifferent to the poetics I guess. The intersections were interesting enough.

in the interview at the end, there's 2 notes about influences on this book that the author mentions that explained the squicks I had with this book: 
- the bible (which went over my head because I'm not a Christian), 
- and Adrienne Rich (I already returned my copy of this book to the library & it was an audiobook, but the way the word "man" was used felt heteronormative & that "patriarchal" could've worked better. Like I think I figured it out via like argument from analogy with like settler vs indigenous & the fact she's mainly talking about 1 man in particular, but the lack of precision felt suspicious to me, and it turned out I was right.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Colonisation

mscalls's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

whatannikareads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

probably one of the most well-executed books i've ever read. such a particular, poignant writing style that's unflinching, blunt, but emotional. can definitely understand why people would give it a 5/5. this is more of a me problem if anything--the book has many unspoken pockets of underlying meanings that require big brain and time to really dive into and process, and my pea brain and lack of free time prevented me from really sitting with the pieces, so i don't think i absorbed as much information as intended. but there are really powerful sentences in here that stand alone in their quality.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

memorable's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Unfortunately, I didn’t fully understand everything in this book; however, it is a strong memoir that presents a lot of resilience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Colonisation

mikki_9's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Incest, Self harm, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

Minor: Medical content, Abortion, and Sexual harassment