floki56's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
One of my favorite books. I think it’s the perfect model of a memoir. Not too centered on success and not too distracted from the writer’s life. It’s enlightening, well-paced, and creates a personal connection when reading. Speaks to many truths core to our human condition. Masterfully written too. The only gripe I had was the wanderings in food that at some times felt repetitive. I’m not a huge foodie but I’m sure if I was my mouth would have been watering the whole time in addition to my eyes which already were. Oh and be sure to check out the author’s music too when you read this book, she rocks.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident, Cancer, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Vomit, Grief, and Death
kalemottison's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast weaves her heartbreaking tale of the loss of her mother into formation. She had me captured by her story, of her fears and her hopes, her losses and her gains, her failures and her successes on the backdrop of something so awful. She is a brilliant writer, doing her best to find some ease in her pain and I am blown away. Her finding her heritage through food is heartwarming. I just want to thank her for putting her story into words like this, I cannot imagine how hard it must have been.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Cancer, Medical content, Mental illness, Grief, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Blood, Chronic illness, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Mental illness
Minor: Abortion, Racism, and Bullying
mpurdy's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
So well written. I was moved to tears in many parts. It was difficult to read her raw storytelling of her mother's journey battling cancer and her ultimate loss. Her writing was so effortless that it made the discussions on grief, guilt, regret easy to feel and understand.
I loved the descriptions of food and how she connected not only to her mother but to her korean roots through it.
I just wanted to give Michelle a hug 🫂 and tell her how proud her mother would be of her. And how we all make mistakes as adolescents and young adults but its how we grow from them.
What a great start to the new year.
I loved the descriptions of food and how she connected not only to her mother but to her korean roots through it.
I just wanted to give Michelle a hug 🫂 and tell her how proud her mother would be of her. And how we all make mistakes as adolescents and young adults but its how we grow from them.
What a great start to the new year.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Body horror, Excrement, Terminal illness, Vomit, Car accident, and Medical content
sahcasm's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Cancer, and Death
Moderate: Car accident, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Alcoholism, and Vomit
marianaribeiro's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Abortion, Addiction, Cancer, Death of parent, Infidelity, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Terminal illness
gabriella_'s review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
I am in awe of this book. I cried many times reading it.
A lot of this book I personally resonated with. While I am not Korean, the mother-daughter bonding, themes of feeling disconnected from culture, grief, and transcending love of food hit very hard. Zauner finds a way to bring a personal story up and close to the reader. She has a way with words.
I can’t express how grateful I am to read this book. It feels like a warm hug. I hope anyone who has struggled with grief, especially those who mourn a mom or motherly figure, walk away from this book with even a shred of comfort. There is so much I want to say, so much thanks I want to pay the author for being as vulnerable as she was. And so much I want to thank her for, for expressing how painful her journey has been.
Some lines of this book really stuck with me, and I’ll end this review with one that made me audibly sob.
When one person collapses, the other instinctively shoulders their weight.
A lot of this book I personally resonated with. While I am not Korean, the mother-daughter bonding, themes of feeling disconnected from culture, grief, and transcending love of food hit very hard. Zauner finds a way to bring a personal story up and close to the reader. She has a way with words.
I can’t express how grateful I am to read this book. It feels like a warm hug. I hope anyone who has struggled with grief, especially those who mourn a mom or motherly figure, walk away from this book with even a shred of comfort. There is so much I want to say, so much thanks I want to pay the author for being as vulnerable as she was. And so much I want to thank her for, for expressing how painful her journey has been.
Some lines of this book really stuck with me, and I’ll end this review with one that made me audibly sob.
When one person collapses, the other instinctively shoulders their weight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit, Alcohol, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, Blood, Mental illness, Grief, and Cancer
Moderate: Cursing
olivia_piepmeier's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.0
I had heard this was good so I started reading it and couldn't stop. Zauner has a way with words, capturing adolescence, grief, the honesty of emotions, and challenging parental relationships indescribably well. Further, she ties her story up so neatly with the loss of her mother. It would be easy to stray from the focus but especially with our relationship with our parents, they work their way into many facets of our lives. Anyone that has lost someone, particularly to cancer, will have some sort of hard time with this. In summary, it's a devastating read written with heart and honesty.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Grief, Cancer, Medical content, Terminal illness, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Body shaming, Excrement, and Alcoholism
Minor: Car accident
kelly_e's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Title: Crying in H Mart
Author: Michelle Zauner
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 3.0
Pub Date: April 21, 2021
T H R E E • W O R D S
Raw • Illuminating • Surface-level
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Crying in H Mart is a memoir about growing up, caregiving, death, grief and identity from Michelle Zauner.
She details growing up as one of the few Korean American kids at her school; of struggling with her mother's high expectations; of time spent with her mother's family in Seoul; of caring for her mother through the end of life; of death and grief; and of reconnecting with her identity.
💭 T H O U G H T S
Sometimes the hype can have an adverse effect on my reading experience, and that was certainly the case with Crying in H Mart. I went in expecting a life-alternating and moving memoir dealing with death and grief, yet I didn't get the emotional depth I'd anticipated.
That's not to say this wasn't an incredibly personal and healing journey for the author, which I imagine it was. It felt like a story which needed to be written, yet not necessarily read. The writing was accessible, and Michelle details an intimate look into the daily routine of caregiving for someone at the end of life. It's always interesting to read about how people discover their culture, especially in grief. And food does play a role throughout, however, I'd expected there to be more of how food is a source of human connection through the good and the bad. I just wanted more depth and emotion.
Crying in H Mart is a beautiful exploration of mother/daughter relationships and an open dialogue on dying and grief, it just wasn't the all encompassing sensory experience I'd been wanting or needing.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers looking for a mother/daughter memoir
• grievers
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"It felt like the world had divided into two different types of people, those who had felt pain and those who had yet to."
"Food was an unspoken language between us, had come to symbolize our return to each other, our bonding, our common ground."
Author: Michelle Zauner
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 3.0
Pub Date: April 21, 2021
T H R E E • W O R D S
Raw • Illuminating • Surface-level
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Crying in H Mart is a memoir about growing up, caregiving, death, grief and identity from Michelle Zauner.
She details growing up as one of the few Korean American kids at her school; of struggling with her mother's high expectations; of time spent with her mother's family in Seoul; of caring for her mother through the end of life; of death and grief; and of reconnecting with her identity.
💭 T H O U G H T S
Sometimes the hype can have an adverse effect on my reading experience, and that was certainly the case with Crying in H Mart. I went in expecting a life-alternating and moving memoir dealing with death and grief, yet I didn't get the emotional depth I'd anticipated.
That's not to say this wasn't an incredibly personal and healing journey for the author, which I imagine it was. It felt like a story which needed to be written, yet not necessarily read. The writing was accessible, and Michelle details an intimate look into the daily routine of caregiving for someone at the end of life. It's always interesting to read about how people discover their culture, especially in grief. And food does play a role throughout, however, I'd expected there to be more of how food is a source of human connection through the good and the bad. I just wanted more depth and emotion.
Crying in H Mart is a beautiful exploration of mother/daughter relationships and an open dialogue on dying and grief, it just wasn't the all encompassing sensory experience I'd been wanting or needing.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers looking for a mother/daughter memoir
• grievers
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"It felt like the world had divided into two different types of people, those who had felt pain and those who had yet to."
"Food was an unspoken language between us, had come to symbolize our return to each other, our bonding, our common ground."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Cancer, and Medical content
Moderate: Vomit, Medical trauma, Addiction, Drug use, Racism, Chronic illness, Alcohol, Drug abuse, and Alcoholism
Minor: Abortion, Car accident, Infidelity, and Suicidal thoughts
hello_lovely13's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death, Death of parent, Cancer, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Mental illness, Alcoholism, and Medical content
Minor: Abortion and Car accident
classicpseudonym's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
wow. SOLID.
i always thought memoirs were (sort of) boring, but decided to give this one a go because i kept hearing about it. and also, gotta support asian women authors, yknow?
anyway, i'm so glad i did. zauner's narrative was well-crafted and kept me hooked simply with the way she describes her surroundings (and don't even get me started about how amazingly-well written the narrative was). the food imagery was beautiful (and mouthwatering, i need to try more korean food), and was a consistent metaphor/symbol for love and loss throughout the book.
i also really really appreciated the mother-daughter relationship depicted in general. even as someone who hasn't been through half of what zauner has, i saw my own relationship with my mom in the various interactions between the two characters? in the book. i'm now more conscious about not taking people and time for granted, and how truly valuable my relationships with the people in my life are.
another thing worth mentioning is how deeply i related to the various instances where zauner didn't feel like she belonged because of her mixed ancestry, as i am also asian-american. the recurring themes of not being white enough but also not being asian enough were well-integrated into zauner's narrative, and the retellings, from being singled out in her middle school years to the joy she found revisiting her homeland and making korean food really drove her story home, in my opinion.
finally, thanks to this (actually heartbreaking) memoir, i now have even more respect for cancer victims and survivors and their loved ones, as well as their caretakers. i'm sending all y'all so much love, and i hope you read zauner's memoir and know that you're not the only one facing this struggle. y'all are strong, and you're gonna make it.
last thing. if you're interested in a deep and personal and heartbreaking narrative that makes you reconsider and think about various things, go read this memoir. even if you're not, still go read this memoir. give it a shot, it's worth it :))
i always thought memoirs were (sort of) boring, but decided to give this one a go because i kept hearing about it. and also, gotta support asian women authors, yknow?
anyway, i'm so glad i did. zauner's narrative was well-crafted and kept me hooked simply with the way she describes her surroundings (and don't even get me started about how amazingly-well written the narrative was). the food imagery was beautiful (and mouthwatering, i need to try more korean food), and was a consistent metaphor/symbol for love and loss throughout the book.
i also really really appreciated the mother-daughter relationship depicted in general. even as someone who hasn't been through half of what zauner has, i saw my own relationship with my mom in the various interactions between the two characters? in the book. i'm now more conscious about not taking people and time for granted, and how truly valuable my relationships with the people in my life are.
another thing worth mentioning is how deeply i related to the various instances where zauner didn't feel like she belonged because of her mixed ancestry, as i am also asian-american. the recurring themes of not being white enough but also not being asian enough were well-integrated into zauner's narrative, and the retellings, from being singled out in her middle school years to the joy she found revisiting her homeland and making korean food really drove her story home, in my opinion.
finally, thanks to this (actually heartbreaking) memoir, i now have even more respect for cancer victims and survivors and their loved ones, as well as their caretakers. i'm sending all y'all so much love, and i hope you read zauner's memoir and know that you're not the only one facing this struggle. y'all are strong, and you're gonna make it.
last thing. if you're interested in a deep and personal and heartbreaking narrative that makes you reconsider and think about various things, go read this memoir. even if you're not, still go read this memoir. give it a shot, it's worth it :))
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Medical content, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, and Car accident
Minor: Infertility and Vomit