Reviews tagging 'Grief'

What My Mother and I Don't Talk About: Fifteen Writers Break the Silence by Michele Filgate

8 reviews

cady_sass's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

This is a heavy read. As with any anthology or collection of essays with multiple authors, some things are going to resonate and others are not. I think there is genuinely something for everyone here, whether your relationship with your mother is good or great or toxic or non-existent. A lot of tough topics are handled very eloquently and it may be tough to get through at times but it’s a worthy read. I’d recommend this to most people, I think you’ll find something that sticks with you for a long time to come. I know I did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Cursing, Ableism, Racism, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Sexism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Medical content, Physical abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

dtierra's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Body shaming, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Pregnancy, Self harm, Bullying, Cancer, Antisemitism, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, and Emotional abuse

florecita_lectora's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, and Grief

sjanke2's review

emotional reflective fast-paced

2.25

 

This collection started strong and waned from there. The ones I enjoyed are the only ones I remember (Alexander Chee and Alexander Chee). I wonder if each contributor got to pick the narrator who would read their piece, as I didn't care for a couple of the voices.

 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Grief, Sexual assault, Self harm, Rape, Mental illness, Fatphobia, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Car accident, and Child abuse

dsinocruz's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Rape, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Eating disorder, Addiction, Alcoholism, Mental illness, and Alcohol

meemawreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

4.0

I hesitated to start 2022 with a post about a downer, but that’s not really what this book is. It contains immense pain - warnings for many mentions of suicidal ideation, substance use, and many kinds of abuse - but it also contains immense healing. Each person who contributed to this collection did hard healing work in order to be able to write about these estrangements and catastrophes. There’s also immense love and forgiveness in them. 
We put mothers on this pedestal… we make motherhood nearly compulsory but then dehumanize mothers so that if they’re not perfectly nurturing and perfectly selfless and perfectly content in motherhood, they’re monsters. I love the care many of these writers took to show understanding that their moms are just people, too. 
I don’t recommend this book generally but specifically: read only if you’re experienced holding strangers’ pain without harm to yourself. Four taters 🥔🥔🥔🥔/🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Physical abuse

danareads's review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness and Suicidal thoughts

vlntnmz's review

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Fatphobia, and Homophobia