Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Tomboyland: Essays by Melissa Faliveno

7 reviews

ciararenaud's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Dysphoria, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Alcohol, Animal death, Sexual violence, Biphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, and Classism

readerette's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

The essay/chapter entitled Motherland feels like a must read for anyone who's ever had children or not had children, or will/will not someday have children. It's a beautiful exploration of how complicated the decision is. As the author says, "...all choices are a sacrifice."

I found this an intriguing rumination on identity and how it develops, though as a Midwesterner, I don't agree with most of the generalizations the author makes about Midwesterners. I do believe those generalizations are how people outside the Midwest often think of us, but I don't believe they're factually true or that most Midwesterners consider them true. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Biphobia, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Grief, Self harm, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Death, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Rape, Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Abortion, Colonisation, and Suicide attempt

sandphin's review

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

I live in the area she's writing about, so it was neat to hear reflections on local people and places, our culture, and what it's like to be queer in this area. She's thoughtful and non-judgmental. I loved how she discusses embodiment, though as a disabled person I couldn't exactly relate to her depictions of strength and athleticism. I loved the positive and loving discussion of kink, polyamory, and various queer relationships and identities. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm and Alcoholism

Minor: Domestic abuse

balladofreadingqueer's review

informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

I enjoyed this essay collection. The autobiographical essays explore a white Midwesterner, masc-of-centre bisexual woman.

The essays have a very particular perspective but I found points of connection and comparison with my own experiences throughout.

Many of the essays centre the Midwest, particularly Wisconsin, and the ways that she both belongs and does not belong, the landscape, tornados and gun ownership. 

I particularly appreciated the essays that examine and probe her difficult relationship to the lgbtq community as a ‘visibly queer’ woman in a relationship with a man, as she seems to feel disconnected from queerness and queer community. The essays also discuss bdsm, self-harm, academia, moths, gun ownership, polyamory, gender identity, motherhood and more.

I wish that there had been more acknowledgement of her ‘social location’ in some essays and I found some of the essays repetitive as they discussed similar feelings or scenarios. But I did find it interesting and useful to consider white midwestern queerness from her perspective.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm and Alcoholism

katsbooks's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

"In a small town, the promises of religion are the language of protection..."

"I wonder, sometimes, if I believed in God, would I still feel so afraid?" 

"In a small midwestern town, darkness gets buried like a secret."

"So often, though, the things we hope to be true about ourselves and the things we really want are incongruous."

"...bucking a traditional system is never easy."

"It takes a great deal of privilege--by way of money, education, and access--to live within one's ideals."

"...there are no good guys or bad guys. There is only us."

I really enjoyed this collection of essays. Faliveno's writing was really amazing. I liked how the essays were split up into sections. The sections made it easy to pause when I needed to since the essay's were a little longer than I liked. I also liked how the different sections tied together larger themes within each essay, however, sometimes the sections could be a little disjointed. I expected these essays to focus more on gender and sexuality, and while that is definitely a large focus of many of the essays, they explore much more than that. I identified with a lot of the author's conversation on what it's like to grow up as a woman in the Midwest. In addition to midwestern culture, gender and sexuality, the text also explored themes like motherhood, grief, cultural expectations, gun culture and one essay about moths that, I have to admit, I didn't quite understand. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Death, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Abortion and Pedophilia

ashlyn's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Rape, Pregnancy, and Biphobia

Minor: Drug use, Gun violence, Abortion, and Eating disorder

mariahsnerdynotes's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

A moving collection of essays that deals with trauma, found family, identity, sexuality, feelings on grief, being a teenager, and much more. While the writing comes off as slightly disjointed at times, it doesn't take long to realize that the narrative is woven together by the theme that connects it all. The essays focus in on what being from Wisconsin means to the author, her life in New York City, her childhood, her flaws, and the complicated web of feelings and thoughts that life truly is. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, and Grief

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Abortion