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Reviews tagging 'Self harm'
Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
48 reviews
emsim's review against another edition
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Death, Genocide, Infertility, Rape, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Classism
gillianm06's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Self harm and Suicidal thoughts
asolis's review
2.5
A mix of memoir, biography, popular science, and a bit of self-help. From childhood, the author is unmoored by her father's nihilistic yet unshakably optimistic approach to life. Here she looks to the life story of David Starr Jordan for perspective.
The content is primarily dedicated to Jordan's story, whom we come to find is a notably repellent human. The author does a good job of giving us a look under the hood at the story of someone who could be considered a scientific hero, and showing the ugliness of bigotry and white supremacist ideology underneath. But the framing presents this in the context of a memoir, even though Miller is stingy with her own story. That, despite its other strengths, makes the book feel unsatisfying.
CW: self harm, substance abuse, sexual assault, state violence
The content is primarily dedicated to Jordan's story, whom we come to find is a notably repellent human. The author does a good job of giving us a look under the hood at the story of someone who could be considered a scientific hero, and showing the ugliness of bigotry and white supremacist ideology underneath. But the framing presents this in the context of a memoir, even though Miller is stingy with her own story. That, despite its other strengths, makes the book feel unsatisfying.
CW: self harm, substance abuse, sexual assault, state violence
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
Moderate: Alcoholism, Genocide, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, and Murder
antoniaodernein's review against another edition
dark
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism
Minor: Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Self harm, and Violence
intpkatharine's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
I keep this book on my person at all times and reread it because it feels like a safe space. It’s just so personal.nawakhtha's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
3.75
A book about David Starr Jordan where the author researched him to find out his source of perseverance in the face of chaos. It starts off rather annoyingly as it was mainly discussing Jordan in a positive light and might seem to ignore the deeply concerning and hypocritical aspects of his legacy, but this all gets addressed in the second half of the book. The first half of the book also has the author taking a tone of scientific and atheistic snobbery at times (not really excessive, just to the point where I personally found it mildly annoying), but it mellows out as the book progresses which ends up painting a nice picture of how the journey of researching Jordan’s life has transformed the author. I expected to dislike this book quite a bit, but my feelings on that shifted the more I got into it which I think adds a lot to how I was able to feel the author’s transformation through her journey. It was also rather gripping and written smoothly enough that I was still able to enjoy it throughout.
The illustrations in the beginning of every chapter are beautiful.
The illustrations in the beginning of every chapter are beautiful.
It does contain references to self harm, eugenics, and forced sterilization. I personally thought those topics were handled well by the author, but it’s worth mentioning in-case you just generally don’t want to engage with these topics at this point in your life.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity and Self harm
royalmilktea's review against another edition
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Self harm
katiezew's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Ableism and Medical trauma
Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts
cass_lit's review against another edition
3.0
There is a certain category of nonfiction that doesn’t work for me. This started off like that and I was worried.
I had no idea where this was going for most of this book. It seemed in the beginning like a stream of consciousness about “chaos” as the author worked through some thoughts on dependency (her dad, her ~curly haired~ ex-boyfriend). (All of her thoughts there are totally valid, I just don’t get a lot of enjoyment out of reading them.) I did not understand her obsession with David Starr Jordan at first, but then she started telling us all of the shitty things he did and I REALLY did not understand why he deserved a book that wasn’t focused on setting his reputation straight. When someone uses his power to cover sexual assault with threats and potentially murders someone (and definitely gaslights the hell out of her after her death), I’m simply not interested in the psychology behind why he did it. He did it and he was wrong. In my opinion, the author’s desperation to find out why Jordan was like this felt like she was trying to find an excuse for him.
The last ~1/4 or so of the book truly saved it for me. Miller felt like she was unequivocally calling Jordan a bad person, and she even got a little vindictive - deservedly. The threads of the story finally started to make some sense and I could find a point to why she wrote this. I am in awe of Anna and Mary’s strength for getting through what they did; they’re a great model of what women (and all humans!) can be, no matter what depraved narcissists have said. I also didn’t know that “fish” wasn’t considered a scientific classification any longer, so it was equally as interesting as it was satisfying.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Medical trauma
Minor: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Suicide attempt
mythystales's review against another edition
This seems like a really interesting read, I'm just trying to get over a reading block and I'm not vibing with it at the moment. I'll probably come back to it to give it another try later down the line, though!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Self harm