Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Yo Sé Por Qué Canta El Pájaro Enjaulado by Maya Angelou

5 reviews

ed_moore's review against another edition

informative inspiring fast-paced

3.0

Maya Angelou’s ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ is a memoir of her time facing racism, sexism and questions of her sexuality as a child and teenager. It is also difficult to review a memoir as it is almost as if I am reviewing and praising or criticising another’s life and experiences, though am still inclined to come to some conclusion on such. It follows her and her brother Bailey navigating childhood in the Deep South of America before returning to their parents in the North. 

 

This potion of her life was illuminating, turbulent and interesting though I struggled to entirety engage with the book, though narrated by Angelou herself with so much passion, both memoirs aren’t my typical genre and the book felt really fragmented. I am still unsure if this may be because I could’ve listened to an abridged version, though am not even sure wether it was abridged or not as I have found nothing to say otherwise though my audiobook recording felt really short. Abridged or otherwise, Angelou’s decision to split her autobiography across 7 books, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ only being the first, it still lacked any satisfying closure and just seemed to end without warning, not even setting itself up for the second book. 

 

Each fragmented event was interesting and held literary merit in itself, but as a chronology they really didn’t work for me and just felt tacked together with no particular rhyme nor reason. I will also highlight that there are highly detailed scenes of SA that occur in Angelou’s life and therefore autobiography, it is handled well illuminating to see the shifting emotions as Angelou grappled with understanding her victimisation, but still worth being aware of if undertaking this book. It was certainly interesting, whereas I don’t think the first part (and most praised) was enough to persuade me to undertaking the vast number of further parts in Angelou’s collection of memoirs. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, and Medical content

Minor: Car accident

ctinawest's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

Blatantly honest. Powerful and emotional. Beautifully detailed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

chriswoody94's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Sexism, Violence, Murder, and Pregnancy

a_bloom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

It took a little while for me to get used to the writing and actually interested in the story, but within a hundred pages it REALLY captured my attention. Her writing is beautiful and descriptive and painfully aware of how her younger self perceived the situation of her birth and life. However, the last few chapters come off awkward as it strays from the usual pacing, but considering she had more autobots it makes sense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, and Abortion

Minor: Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, and War

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child death, Drug use, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Car accident, War, and Classism

Poverty, WWII, concentration camps, Japanese displacement, homelessness, d slur.