Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Finding Me

Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Finding Me by Viola Davis

370 reviews

livlosiewicz's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

Pros:
•What I love most about memoirs is when people pour their honest selves into the text, and allow readers like me who have lived very different lives to step in their shoes and live in their heads for a little bit. Viola Davis does this beautifully, and opens up about a lot of traumatic, but important, topics. I especially love how we get so many facets of her relationships with her family, and how she holds up that there were many times when she was terrified of her father and wanted him to leave, while also acknowledging how much she loved him and how they were able to foster an important and close relationship at the end
•Davis provides some really important insights about how her identity as a black woman impacted her acting career and the way that both racism and colorism affect her life. This was peppered throughout the story, representing the way it was simply always present in her life. I found this to be both really well-done and informative!

Cons:
•The organization of this book left a lot to be desired. Some sections of the book were repetitive, either making the same point that she already made without adding anything new, or adding exposition we already had (like re-explaining her parttime job at Trinity). It read a bit like she decided to move the text to other spots but forgot to delete it in the first spot.
•Also, the book jumped back and forth in time (by margins of a few years; it was mostly linear) in a way that I didn’t really understand. For example, telling about a breakup and then the boyfriend appears pre-breakup a few pages later. If it was necessary to tell things out of order, some roadmapping transition language would have been helpful! It was like the way you would have a conversation or tell a story out loud, but it was confusing on the page. I suspect it might have been better as an audiobook
•(I’ll note that it seems a little unfair to be criticizing the grammar of someone who had to miss school as a child because their family had no hear or running water…so I’m not blaming her, I’m blaming the editor!! Take a red pen to this baby and it would be a real masterpiece!!)

Recommendation: I recommend to fans of memoirs, especially if you’re already a fan of Viola Davis. LOTS of content warnings: this woman has been through a LOT and somehow still managed to have an amazing career despite basically every obstacle. I really enjoyed her perspectives on her life and have a lot of admiration for her journey. Avoid if poor structure in memoirs can bother you or if you want something without trauma.

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ebonyyd's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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awaywiththefairies's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0

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scouthannah's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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fromthelibraryofmarissa's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Whew. This one was so hard to get through. What Viola Davis has lived through is incredible and so heartbreaking. Viola narrating her own story with such dignity, class, and raw emotion is beyond moving. A must listen.

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