Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo

31 reviews

ryliereadss's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

As someone with PTSD, I was really curious going into this book. Foo does a very good job of explaining the difference between PTSD and complex PTSD. She was very vulnerable when talking about the abuse she suffered as a child and some not very flattering moments she experienced as an adult. I could definitely see someone reading this book and starting their own journey discovering and dealing with their complex PTSD. Her voice is so strong and self aware. I also liked that she recognized her privilege when trying to find treatment for her C-PTSD. Reading about her relationship with her parents was heartbreaking. The ending made me happy though. I would highly recommend this book, especially if you're curious about how trauma can affect our brains because she does a good job explaining that and she cites her sources.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

livreads4fun's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Racism

huldasif's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I learned a lot from this book, even with my degree in psychology and my own past trauma and recovery. It was very well written and researched, but also heavy and emotionally draining. It's divided up into five parts and I found that I needed to take good breaks between those parts, and sometimes more often too, for my own well-being, so it took me a long time to finish. I cried with the author and I laughed with the author and I got really angry too. All of the emotions! However, I really appreciated this work and it's not just an extraordinarily well written memoir, it's also something you can use for reference, because she doesn't just say something and demand that you believe her, she cites research and gives all of these sources so you can then look it up yourself. I really appreciated the effort and good, hard work that went into this book. So well done!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Violence, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, and Grief

danajoy's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective

5.0

An incredible memoir. Very moving.

 "It's ok to have some things you never get over"

This is confronting, especially in the first third when Stefanie outlines the abuse she sustained as a child that led to her development of C-PTSD.
What I really appreciate about this memoir was how open she is about her journey, especially with therapy.
 
I would recommend this to people who have read or attempted I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy. Both are centred around sustained child abuse but What My Bones Know looks at science and ways to heal and grow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Abandonment

Moderate: Self harm and Suicide attempt

Minor: Incest and Pedophilia

karmapen's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Mental illness

gabhopesreads's review against another edition

5.0

This is the best memoir I've ever read. It's so well-written, phenomenal on audio and one of my favorites this year so far. I loved the narration, plus the included audios of her therapy sessions. I loved how she went into details about history, hers and forgotten history, erased history. I loved how it felt like I was put under a microscope and dissected, but in actuality she was explaining her C-PTSD. At the end, the message of hope mirrored my own that I was lucky enough to find years ago. I wish I'd read this sooner, when I'd been drowning in my diagnosis. But the thing with C-PTSD is it's always there, so this will be helpful to read at any point in my life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pandemic/Epidemic, Hate crime, Gun violence, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Racism, Grief, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Domestic abuse, Cultural appropriation, Child abuse, Car accident, and Bullying

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

<strong>Blew me away</strong>

This was a very painful book to read in that there were some parallels to my life that I needed to re-examine.

A therapist once called my childhood traumatic, but I thought she was exaggerating. My family loved me, unlike the author’s parents. My family failed me often, but I thought that was normal. Now I know why the therapist said what she did - it was abnormal in this American life context, and it shouldn’t have been normal because that’s what immigrant life is about. While mine was extremely tame compared to what she went through, I recognize through her work where I need to be kinder to myself and my past. Wow. That’s what this book did for me. 

That she’s an Asian immigrant saying all this made a huge difference for me too. Often, it felt like every therapist only got a little bit of what I was trying to say because they were White. Then I tried to find someone of color and met a couple Black women who got me a little better. Then I found an immigrant, she was also closer, but none of them could understand my specific Asian immigrant background. This woman who wrote this book, whom I’ve never met, she gets it! What a relief it was to read.

Will be reaching for this book many times over.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, and Suicide attempt

withdoublen's review

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

It took me a long time to read this, not bc the pace is slow. But how heavy the content is. I’ve cried, related to and laughed with her thoughts and remarks. I loved it. 

Life is tough but it is not made to be easy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

alayamorning's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Self harm

Moderate: Grief, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Colonisation, Gaslighting, and Racial slurs

Minor: Genocide, Infidelity, and Chronic illness

allthingsnerdy's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

5.0

This is one of those books that I think everyone should read, because even though it's about one person's experience with having complex PTSD, it's so much more than that. It really made me reflect on my relationships with my friends and family, how I treat people, and how I treat myself.  I definitely want to reread it because it was filled with so much information and thought, it seems like one of those books that you have to read multiple times to get everything out of it. It's definitely a tough read at times, but very worth it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Mental illness, Abandonment, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt