Reviews tagging 'Incest'

Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot

26 reviews

bear_ridge_tarot's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective

4.5

 The memoir of a powerful Indigenous woman’s coming of age in the Pacific Northwest. It is a weaving of grief, trauma, abuse, and the complexities of being Native told in such a way that makes the reader feel it all. I listened to this on audiobook narrated by Rainy Fields and could not have been more enthralled with the flow of the story. The struggles of mental health, combined with post-traumatic stress disorder, lends weight to the book which is already heavy with emotion. 

Rainy Fields narrates this with compassion and passion. The tone was perfection, invoking every emotion with perfection. It made the experience more heartfelt than if I’d only read the novel. The rawness of this stream-of-consciousness type story is a type of perfection that cannot come from something more polished. It tells the story of a miserable life, yes, but one that also includes survival and a unique understanding of the inner landscape that isn’t easy to earn. When you read a memoir, especially one penned by the subject, it tends to be neutral in judgment, or even overly flattering. That is not the case with Heart Berries. It is a cathartic, brutally honest telling of a life lived. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Self harm, and Alcohol

Minor: Incest and Abortion

theboricuabookworm's review against another edition

Gripping and raw. The lyrical way Mailhot writes about pain and trauma and grief will leave you gasping.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

mdavis26's review against another edition

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Incest, Mental illness, Self harm, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

akgrantmatz's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

3.25

I don't know if this style is for me. The prose is incredible, and the story, anger, and honesty are important. But the brutal honesty and lack of a sense of Terese as a person almost reads to me as dehumanizing. The substance of the book is difficult, but the voice is uncomfortable.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Abortion, and Alcohol

Minor: Eating disorder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

leahlengel's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, and Sexual assault

mgsl's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Incest, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

fink1129's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

jordansmoot's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Incest, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

mayaism_01's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

This was gut punch, after gut punch, after gut punch. I feel like I’ve been shattered into a million little pieces and I will never recover from this. I don’t think I’ve ever been possessed with so much anger while reading a book. I loved this so much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Eating disorder, Vomit, and Abortion

stevia333k's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

3.5

usually I consider Adrienne Rich references to be an immediate DNF & didn't do so this time because it was only cited as an inspiration at the very end. In fact, the blurb my library gave in retrospect is basically trying to spin the Andrienne Rich influence -- that being said, besides some squicks, it was decent.

So this is by an author who wanted to challenge expectations about works written by indigenous authors. (I didn't pick up on how besides various marketable narratives -- i mean this in the way that both karl marx & the austrian school of economics are considered "controversial".)

Anyways, I read the book on the basis of family building & decolonization. The part about forgiveness being done in ceremonies instead of the white idea of "letting go", especially since I've struggled with that colonial dynamic too, except as a white settler I didn't have established ceremonies for context.

Admittedly I was kind of indifferent to the poetics I guess. The intersections were interesting enough.

in the interview at the end, there's 2 notes about influences on this book that the author mentions that explained the squicks I had with this book: 
- the bible (which went over my head because I'm not a Christian), 
- and Adrienne Rich (I already returned my copy of this book to the library & it was an audiobook, but the way the word "man" was used felt heteronormative & that "patriarchal" could've worked better. Like I think I figured it out via like argument from analogy with like settler vs indigenous & the fact she's mainly talking about 1 man in particular, but the lack of precision felt suspicious to me, and it turned out I was right.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Colonisation