Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Sink: A Memoir by Joseph Earl Thomas

5 reviews

nojsonofthan's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

4.0

Incredibly moving, if somewhat scattershot memoir of growing up in a situation so traumatizing and dark that it shocks the conscience.  The connective tissue of fantasy and video games, sustaining and warping the author's self as he grows up is novel and memorable.  And when it's grim, it's insanely grim.  Much like life, though, there's an inconsistency in tone that keeps the theme from really coming together: describing an actual life, even through a lens wielded by an author as skilled as Thomas, is going to have an intermittency - there are downs that surprise you but there are also ups that, perhaps unintentionally, blunt the downs in ways that made them less effective to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Animal death, Abandonment, Bullying, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Incest

gondorgirl's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Excrement, Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Classism, Cursing, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, and Body shaming

bookbaenia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, and Drug abuse

vagrantheather's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

4.5

I picked up Sink from a library display knowing nothing about the story or the author (and not noticing it was a memoir, which is far outside my typical fare). Three pages in I knew it was coming home with me. The story itself is hyperreal, disturbingly graphic and awful, but without that absurdism authors often add for levity. It isn't self piteous or self aggrandizing. It's not torture porn (you don't read it because you like to see the characters suffer). It makes no excuses and pulls no punches. This is a story replete with drug abuse, child abuse, spousal abuse, infestations, violence, rape, bullying, every difficult inner city reality imaginable (except, noticeably, homelessness). It is not "pleasant" to read. But it is well written. It's relatable in a way that literature needs. It gives a voice to people on the fringes, people society turns a blind eye to, people who don't often escape the brutality of their early lives.

I grew up in poverty but this is a whole different level of challenging. And somehow I feel that Joseph Earl Thomas would say the same - that yeah he had it bad, but others had it worse. Abuse is like that; you normalize it to survive, you justify that others are in worse places, you feel grateful for the little liberties you have. And that feels important to me. Thomas never had to say as much for me to feel like the point was well made. So I'd say this book is deft, competent, sophisticated. Important.

I have confusing feelings about the rampant abuse portrayed and would give a strong content warning to anyone with subjects they can't tolerate. All closet skeletons are on display.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Cursing, Excrement, Body horror, Sexual content, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Violence, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Bullying, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Racial slurs, Alcoholism, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Incest, Homophobia, Animal death, and Gaslighting

alite428's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Addiction, and Homophobia

Moderate: Cursing, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship