Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery by Harrison Mooney

8 reviews

teacupsandfirereads's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad medium-paced

This book was very eye opening to a reality I do not know and understand, not being racialized or adopted. But it is an important read, no mater what. This story heavily focuses on Mooney' childhood and the ignorance and white supremacy he was subject to at the extent of adoption. While touched on ever so briefly, It would have been nice to see more of "today" and how shaped him. The stories Mooney shares of his childhood are raw and full of thought and emotion, showing just how much he grew through it. Definitely felt a tangible and accessible perspective on the significant, systemic, individual impacts of micro-aggressions, gaslighting, cocolonization and white supremacy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Racial slurs, Islamophobia, and Abandonment

Minor: Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pedophilia

wchereads's review against another edition

dark reflective sad

5.0

I am floored

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Racism

nonidude's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Genocide, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, and Pregnancy

ccmhats's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Deadnaming, and Islamophobia

bookishmeganreadsbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Religious bigotry

jen_again's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Racism

Moderate: Pedophilia and Physical abuse

Minor: Addiction and Pregnancy

leslie_overbookedsocialworker's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Grief, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

joann_l's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Holy not-so-micro-aggressions. Holy GASLIGHTING. Invisible Boy was incredibly difficult to read without weeping. Every time Harry’s mother or other family members gaslighted him I wanted to scoop him out of the pages of his past and take him far, far away to people who would love him as he is, for who he is, for what he is.

I cry for all the children, teenagers, people who are where he was right now.

For all its pain, I do not regret reading Invisible Boy… because the pain embedded in Harrison Mooney’s past is insidious, latently seething, and all too common still. Decolonization is an eternal task, its end is nowhere in sight. Memoirs and works like Invisible Boy remain relevant and necessary in our collective, societal process towards decolonization. Like Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, Mooney’s Invisible Boy is a call to action. It is a reminder that we still need a rebellion of the mind and soul.

Invisible Boy relates the path of Mooney’s awakening to his race and the ways in which racism hides behind a myth of colorlessness. It begins with his childhood and ends in his early adulthood. His memoir exposes to the reader how racism seethes in the most intimate places, in the places it should not exist — in this case, within a family. Families are supposed to be safe. They are supposed to be supportive, loving, nurturing. Invisible Boy tells a sad tale of how racism is the silent reaper within, turning the sanctuary of the family into an emotional, mental prison.

What makes Mooney’s Invisible Boy unique from other works like it (Sam Selvon’s Lonely Londoners, George Lamming’s novels, Franz Fanon’s memoirs and works, James Baldwin’s calls to action, among others) is Mooney’s attention to a community that is little attended to: adoptees of color with white adopted families. As in Mixed-Race Superman, Will Harris’ essay on the transcultural ways of being mixed race, Invisible Boy highlights a different kind of process of decolonization that confronts adoptees of color in white families and white communities that hold onto racist beliefs.

I do not know if I can re-read Invisible Boy for the sake of my own peace as a person of color who has grappled with my own decolonization; but, I am glad I read it at least once and I am privileged to have the ability to choose to only read it once. I am privileged to have been given a rare glimpse into another’s experience of racial awakening. I am privileged that my own decolonization was less traumatic. In truth, Invisible Boy is a book that demands re-reading and reading again. One day I will summon enough courage to read it again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Colonisation