Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Magical Thinking: True Stories by Augusten Burroughs

3 reviews

librarymouse's review

dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

3.75

I remember having loved this book the first time I read it in high school. As an adult, I was kind of disgusted with through the author was, as depicted in these memoir essays. The interview after the book (audiobook) is a massive boon to the author, because it seems like he's disgusted with who he was at this point too. Not a fan of the volume of slurs used in this, but it is true to life of an alcoholic in New York in the 80s and 90s, I guess.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Terminal illness, Suicide, Grief, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Alcoholism, Dysphoria, Sexual content, Addiction, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Ableism, Alcohol, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Homophobia

grboph's review

dark lighthearted reflective medium-paced

2.0

I'm not sure how I felt about this book. It was fine to read over breaks from school, and I liked that it was a bunch of different, easily digestible stories that were quirky and occasionally entertaining. However, some of them were kind of boring and none of them were as funny as I had anticipated (or as the book itself advertised). I feel like a lot of the "humor" came from making fun of people, which often crossed over into just being cruel, which I really did not like. I read Dry and Running with Scissors and enjoyed both of those, but this was definitely not on that same level of entertainment or heart. I don't think I'd recommend this book to anyone, to be entirely honest, just because Augusten Burroughs has much better books out there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Ableism, Mental illness, and Transphobia

Moderate: Racism, Medical content, Addiction, Drug use, Dysphoria, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Classism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Body shaming

Minor: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

crufts's review

reflective medium-paced

1.5

The blurb of Magical Thinking declares it as a collection of True stories that give voice to the thoughts we all have but dare not mention.
After reading it, I would rewrite this as: Stories that give voice to the mean thoughts the author has, and assumes that other people have as well.

Mean jokes are the meat, potatoes, butter, side-salad, and every other component of this book. "I have a wide, deep cruel streak," the author comments. You sure do, buddy!
Hardly anyone escapes the scathing crosshairs of Augusten's pen. Disabled people, trans people, Down's Syndrome people, sexual assault victims, housewives, gay men he considers insufficiently attractive - there's nobody he won't insult! Between career-limiting moves such as insulting his readers, the author conveys one point very clearly: he dislikes people - but only as much as he dislikes himself.

You can skip reading this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Ableism, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Pedophilia, Terminal illness, Vomit, Rape, and Racism