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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Thank you to Avid Reader Press and Simon and Schuster for sending me this ARC to review.
I laughed, I cried, I got mad, and I cared a lot about the characters in reading this book. Christie Tate has really put her life out there in this memoir. The book starts with her fixation with wanting to die. This then leads to her sharing of her struggles with bulimia, anxiety, depression, social angst and lack of relationships (both friends and romance). The back drop for this book is mainly Dr. Rosen's (her therapist) office. She has both individual and group therapy through his office. Her story, the stories of those in her groups and Dr. Rosen's own "back story" interweaves to create a family of characters.
This book is not for the faint of heart in regard to trigger warnings of: eating disorders, intimacy issues (Lots of Sex talk), drug and alcohol abuse, and general angst of life portrayed in some of the characters through history with self harm.
I love memoirs because it really is that person's ability to share their story and yet I see how their story can be so familiar with either my own story, or a story of someone I've known. As always I highlighted a few of my favorite lines from this book...
pg 11-Therapy, like being truly close to people, seemed like an experience I had to stand on the outside of, my face pressed to the window.
pg 17- To me, those Ivy League certificates signified that this guy was top tier. Elite. Creme de la creme. But it also meant that if he couldn't d help me, then I was truly and deeply fucked. (Her description of Dr. Rosen)
pg 247 I was okay, or okay enough, for the first time in my entire life. Because I said so.
pg 253 I think I just went on my last first date. (this line made me tear up)
I laughed, I cried, I got mad, and I cared a lot about the characters in reading this book. Christie Tate has really put her life out there in this memoir. The book starts with her fixation with wanting to die. This then leads to her sharing of her struggles with bulimia, anxiety, depression, social angst and lack of relationships (both friends and romance). The back drop for this book is mainly Dr. Rosen's (her therapist) office. She has both individual and group therapy through his office. Her story, the stories of those in her groups and Dr. Rosen's own "back story" interweaves to create a family of characters.
This book is not for the faint of heart in regard to trigger warnings of: eating disorders, intimacy issues (Lots of Sex talk), drug and alcohol abuse, and general angst of life portrayed in some of the characters through history with self harm.
I love memoirs because it really is that person's ability to share their story and yet I see how their story can be so familiar with either my own story, or a story of someone I've known. As always I highlighted a few of my favorite lines from this book...
pg 11-Therapy, like being truly close to people, seemed like an experience I had to stand on the outside of, my face pressed to the window.
pg 17- To me, those Ivy League certificates signified that this guy was top tier. Elite. Creme de la creme. But it also meant that if he couldn't d help me, then I was truly and deeply fucked. (Her description of Dr. Rosen)
pg 247 I was okay, or okay enough, for the first time in my entire life. Because I said so.
pg 253 I think I just went on my last first date. (this line made me tear up)
She is a good storyteller, but this wasn't my type of story.
I had a very hard time empathizing with the main character. I’m curious what the therapist’s perspective was throughout because I felt like a lot of the narrative had ethical concerns, specifically how could he objectively treat patients who are dating each other?
This made for compelling reading, but not sure about how I felt about Christie herself or the Dr. Rosen Experience. I’ve done my fair share of therapy, even group therapy when I was a teenager, but nothing comes close to this teddy bear hacking, rolling around on the floor screaming, smashing heads with potted plants, throwing shoes at each other… and we were actual children.
Maybe that’s a sign I should be grateful.
So for whatever unorthodox methods were used, I’m glad Christie got to a functional place, and nobody got seriously hurt.
Maybe that’s a sign I should be grateful.
So for whatever unorthodox methods were used, I’m glad Christie got to a functional place, and nobody got seriously hurt.
Memoir about author’s life as a single lawyer in Chicago attending group therapy groups with a quirky therapist. Best part is the kindness of her unusual group mates throughout her slow transition into functional adulthood.
medium-paced
Didn't think this would end up being 5 stars but really impressed and enjoyed it immensely even when mad the people in the book.
I really got into this memoir about a young woman who struggled with relationships in graduate school and beyond and pursued unconventional group therapy.
I identified so much with how she describes Chicago and her grad student life there (except she was eventually a rich lawyer and I was...not), probably because I went to grad school at Loyola a couple years later than she did and the Chicago she describes was the one I experienced. I don’t know enough about mental health care provider training and ethics to know if Dr. Rosen’s methods were appropriate, but the book had my attention and I was very invested in Christie’s success. She made infuriating choices, but I thought she was both honest and self-aware in her recollections of her younger years.
I identified so much with how she describes Chicago and her grad student life there (except she was eventually a rich lawyer and I was...not), probably because I went to grad school at Loyola a couple years later than she did and the Chicago she describes was the one I experienced. I don’t know enough about mental health care provider training and ethics to know if Dr. Rosen’s methods were appropriate, but the book had my attention and I was very invested in Christie’s success. She made infuriating choices, but I thought she was both honest and self-aware in her recollections of her younger years.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced