Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot

17 reviews

bookworm91's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

2.75

Well written, truthful, difficult subject matter

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Grief, Death of parent, and Colonisation

holasoyyo's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

3.5

It's hard to adequately rate memoirs because they're so personal and can be unique in what a memoir means to the writer, and this was no exception. I took in Heart Berries via audiobook and unfortunately I find that specific narrator to just not do the books justice that they read. I also struggled a lot with the perspective as the reader being that of a toxic ex for most of the book, had to really make myself push through that aspect and finish the book. I'm glad I did, especially to hear the QA and the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

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

sillysausagezj's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Colonisation

Minor: Abortion

eve81's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Colonisation

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

stagasaurus's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Abortion, and Abandonment

clarabooksit's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Grief, Alcohol, and Colonisation

lauradvb's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

seeceeread's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad

💭 "Séliš stories are a lot like its art: sparse and interested in blank space; the work must be striking."

This is a torrent. Relentless, stream-of-conscious nonsequiturs circle back to each other. The book is a menacing bath of tales:

assault and need and love and violence and therapy and mothering and child separation and tenderness and despair and and and

. Mailhot seems to want to purge the hurt, to exorcise her uncertainty by naming: she has felt, craved, demanded, retreated. 

I winced to witness, to relive so intimately all that has sliced her.

The author nicks as she tells us of the small ladder she carved into her arm while pregnant.

Like her girlhood self, we are coaxed and cornered into small spaces with the grotesque, wondering if it's safe to speak, to look away. I wanted to hold her at times, a quiet listener as an irregular heartbeat sang of heartache. At others, I wanted to run away, to commit violence against her selfish lover and to snap her into nonchalance. These whiplashes of emotion and intention mirror hers, further evidence she submerged me.

💭 "The tips of your fingers felt like wet grapes. I wanted to bite every one."

Expect to be nipped.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, and Classism