Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

11 reviews

librarymouse's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Hearing Maya Angelou tell her own story in her own voice was wonderful. She's a gifted storyteller and speaker, and her mastery of language creates a wonderfully vivid image of her childhood for her readers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Lesbophobia and Abandonment

betag1013's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jalexpulliamkepler's review

challenging slow-paced

4.0

Interesting and often moving but sometimes felt more like a series of essays than a memoir

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Infidelity, Medical content, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and War

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

brynalexa's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

It’s hard to give a poet anything but five stars on their autobiography. I can’t imagine having such a strong memory of my formative years after going through so many transitions and traumas. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Moderate: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Addiction, Abortion, and Alcohol

rylene's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Misogyny, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Grief, and Classism

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.75

Difficult to read, but in the way that it challenges how you think about things.

In particular this made me consider the times it took place during, the "good ole days" and how shitty they were for a lot people.  I make it a habit to not read much about a book before I pick it up to give everything a fair chance and the reason why I picked those one up was because I saw it on a list of commonly banned books.  While it contains some mature(-ish) content, it is much tamer than many things I read as a youth and the value of showing other-ing on a personal degree is unmatched.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident

A very thoughtful, caring, emotional memoir with exquisite prose, but mind the warnings. The way she describes being SA’d as a child is extremely graphic, disturbing, and heartbreaking. I am grateful for her honesty and bravery telling exactly how all the victims of such a horror have to walk a tightrope of expectations, and how adults often make it harder for a child to tell anyone if they are harmed. Best part is how much love overflows in the pages for everything dear to her. Maya Angelou is a wonderful soul.

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.

sunny_not's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

3.0

Although it was hard to read due to the heavy topics it deals with. The chapters weren't super connected with each other either so it felt like it was incomplete at some parts. However it's still a very important read. I wish that this was a long memoir rather than a book series of memoirs tho, since I wanted to read more of this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail