Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up by Selma Blair

60 reviews

thenovelbookshelf's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

A beautiful, heart-breaking, heart-wrenching, emotionally compelling memoir of Selma Blair's life from the early years to now.
  
We all like to think that stardom and celebrity is easy, beautiful, graceful, healthy. This proves that you never know what people have gone through in their lives.
  
From the first drink at age 3, to daily drinking to numb the pain from unbeknownst MS, Selma Blair tells a frank & honest recollection of her memories.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Rape, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Drug use, Toxic relationship, Dementia, and Injury/Injury detail

caseythereader's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.25

 - I didn't know much about Selma Blair before starting this book, other than having seen her in a few movies and knowing about her MS diagnosis. Her memoir takes readers inside what has so far been a fairly private life, and I'll remember it forever.
- This book is a hard read. Blair has been through a lot in her life. I also read the audiobook, read by Blair herself, and she breaks into tears at many points in the story.
- However, MEAN BABY also delivers on the celebrity front. Blair name drops with abandon, and takes us with her to fancy award show parties, photo shoots, and to hang out with the likes of Carrie Fisher and Karl Lagerfeld. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

abbysbookadventure's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Eating disorder and Toxic relationship

zarazuck's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

 had no idea there was so much pain, trauma, and sadness in Selma Blair’s life. She’s a lovely storyteller, but I imagine this would be *too much* for someone who saw more similarities to her own life.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Eating disorder and Death of parent

emilycm's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

5.0

oh, wow. this memoir is deeply riddled with authenticity in selma's experience, and it gets you hooked if you let it. i knew very little about her outside of her acting, but she certainly has a grip on the writing. i read a lot of reviews saying that "the tissue of this isn't connected," and that parts jump to other parts, which whole heartedly i did not find issue with. i think since there is a lot of trauma explicated within, it feels as if pieces are jagged and don't fit, but selma's beauty as a writer is that she can thread all these lessons and moments of her life together to create a really solid memoir. this is especially gripping, i think, not because of the trauma that some might find excessive or hard to hear about as selma presents it, but the way in which she reflects on it all. the way you can feel her presence in the moment right now, still thinking through things as she puts them down on the page, and that feels to me, entirely human and what i gravitate towards reading and connect with.

this is one of the few, but best, celebrity memoirs i've read. and in reading it, i know it's going to stick with me. it's someone else's life story, just as every memoir may be, but there was something so innate in this one that i can't help but feel the heaviness and realness of the words as the book now sits on a shelf across from me. i think i'll be recommending this to lots of people in the years to come, and referring to some particular sections at points in my life i do not yet know how they will come.

selma's continuous, authentic threading of her experience with MS was also a very integral, moving part of this memoir. i felt moved by her voice in every sentence and moment of the journey, how she talked about her body, it was a very vivid and powerful account.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, and Rape

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

tracikennedy25's review against another edition

emotional reflective

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism and Chronic illness

Minor: Animal death and Rape

adventuresofabibliophile's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Animal death, Body shaming, Drug use, and Eating disorder

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

btodd12's review

dark medium-paced

3.0

I wanted more introspection from Selma Blair. Mean Baby mostly read like an autobiography instead of a memoir because it lacked reflection. There is a LOT of trauma in this book, but it is mostly just told as a story without revealing the depth of Selma Blair’s thoughts and feelings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

megang519's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

The memoir I didn't know I needed until I cracked it open! Beautifully written, vulnerable, and enlightening.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent

ashp's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Eating disorder, and Rape

I loved that Selma gave us a throughline of her life that is beautiful and reflective. She does not just write about the glamour of her life. Premising her story as a mean baby grounds the story well.