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

challenging dark emotional funny fast-paced

4.0

Jennette's story is extremely messed up, and unfortunately not that surprising. The child acting scene is so clearly completely insane, but I'm glad we're getting more stories about it. Please look into the content warnings before reading, especially emotional abuse and eating disorder ones. I really enjoyed Jennette's writing, it was funny and fast-paced. I felt like I could actually tell she enjoyed writing, which doesn't feel surprising since she wanted to write screenplays over acting. (Also, did anyone else think it really sounded like it was Ariana Grande who threatened to quit if Jennette got to write a script for the show? If so, what a shitty move on her part.)

I felt a little bit like this memoir was missing another couple of chapters. The Jennette we got to know towards the end of the book doesn't necessarily feel like the Jennette that wrote a memoir and published it. It felt like a quick jump from walking away from a therapist who even suggested her mom wasn't great, to writing a book exposing how messed up her mom was. It's clear there's a lot of slow work that goes into it, but I'm curious about how she got to a point where she was willing to tell the world about what happened (maybe speaking as someone with weird parental relationships as well). 

All in all, I can see why everyone and their mom is raving about this book, and I think it's an important voice in the current media world. I don't think it'll be my favorite book of the year but I'm glad I read it.
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