A review by haley_b
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

 From the author’s fame to the title to the cover, I knew I had to get my hands on this memoir. 

I was in the target audience for iCarly when it was airing, and over the past few years I’ve been interested and disappointed to learn of the scandals surrounding Dan Schneider and Nickelodeon more generally. When Jennette McCurdy’s memoir first crossed my radar, I expected a juicy expose on everything that was swept under the rug behind the scenes. 

I was wrong in the best possible way. iCarly and “the creator” take a backseat to McCurdy’s relationships with her body, her people-pleasing, her disordered eating habits, her fame, her ambitions, and above all, her mother. The result is a deeply personal coming-of-age narrative. As I read, I became more and more aware of just how far McCurdy must have come in recovery and self-discovery to even be able to write the book.  Here more so than other memoirs, the significance of the author’s act of writing it is palpable. 

McCurdy’s writing skills surpass whatever I might have expected form my first “celebrity memoir” read. Her language is unadorned and observational, but seldom boring. She relates her story in simple terms, letting the fact of each new development stand for itself, giving weight to each statement and moving the narrative briskly along. I love an audiobook narrated by the author, particularly when it comes to memoir, and McCurdy delivered hers with an appropriate combination of grace and self-deprecating sarcasm. 

I highly recommend that anyone who hesitates at the gimmicky title to give this memoir a chance. You’ll be glad her mom died, too.