Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt

11 reviews

abysmaleen's review

challenging emotional reflective tense slow-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

homestylereads's review against another edition

emotional informative sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Racism

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Mass/school shootings

sydapel's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

4.75

I feel totally unmoored by this book. The writing is profoundly and intimately reflective, almost volatile in the pace it takes, swinging from rage to sorrow to longing to adoration so quickly. Belcourt speaks so profoundly about queerness, indigenous oppression in the Americas and his personal journey as a writer in these spaces. This is one of those books that requires slow reading and forces you to take a step back. The subject matter is difficult at times, but the number of quotes that will stay with me make it worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Colonisation

Moderate: Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, and Transphobia

Minor: Suicide and Suicide attempt

dominic_t's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

This book is really great and thought-provoking. His prose is beautiful and dense. I found some of it hard to wrap my head around, and I wish I had read this with other people so I could discuss it and understand more of it. He shows really clearly that the colonization of Canada has never stopped, even though white settlers pretend that colonization is all in the past. He discusses Indigenous trauma, resistance, and joy, and his writing is beautiful. This isn't an easy read, but it is worth it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Racism, Homophobia, Transphobia, Suicide, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Murder

Trauma, residential schools

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Racism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Homophobia, Mental illness, Medical content, Grief, Death, Hate crime, Genocide, Colonisation, Gun violence, Murder, Blood, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Police brutality

Minor: Infidelity, Rape, and Transphobia

williamgideon's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective tense

4.5

It's taken me a while to be able to articulate my thoughts on this book. It's so unlike anything I've ever read, so unique in its form and subject matter. This book definitely is a lot to digest, despite only being 128 pages it took me 8 days to read. It is challenging, both in the subjects it deals with but also the way it is written.
This book deeply touched me, and there are passages that made me cry. Some of the essays are worthy of 5 stars, but others didn't hit as hard. My favorites were 'Please keep loving: Reflections on unlivability', 'Robert' and 'To hang our grief up to dry'.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Suicide, Racism, Suicide attempt, Grief, and Murder

pawpaw's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

To call Belcourt's memoir "inspiring" or "emotional" feels like an insult; the level of his writing is indescribably rich, refreshing, complex, and needed. I would quote some of his most poignant lines, but that'd ruin the experience of coming across them naturally. 

Don't get me wrong: sometimes I rolled my eyes because of how much he used the word "ontological," and he can come off as pretentious, but so be it. With everything that he's been forced to deal with, with everything he's achieved? He's allowed to come off as a bit arrogant at times.

If you're triggered by suicide, sexual assault, murder, and the institutionalized destruction of Indigenous peoples, please tread carefully. That being said, this book is vital, and well beyond worth it. 

Please remember that there are many other Indigenous and queer voices. If you choose to listen to this one, don't stop there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Sexual content, Colonisation, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, and Genocide

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexism, Racism, Murder, Cursing, and Grief

Minor: Sexual assault

vigil's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.75

this is a very personal book, deeply entrenched in his own experience that makes it difficult to rate.

billy-ray belcourt has a very strong and specific command of language, (in a way that likely intentional, judging by a later entry) that is enticing but also difficult to comprehend due its strong roots in academia. he has a very immersive writing style that transports you directly into his brain, for better or for worse. 

for personal enjoyment, it’s a 3 star, but i respect the author and what he’s doing with this collection that i bumped it up to a 4.75.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Genocide, Medical content, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia

deadpoetsam's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Homophobia, Grief, Colonisation, Murder, Toxic relationship, Cultural appropriation, Racism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Gun violence, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Child death, Suicide attempt, Mass/school shootings, Police brutality, Sexism, and Suicide

Minor: Death

offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

2.75

I am hesitant to assign a number value to this book or even to leave a review, because I suspect that my experience is more reflective of my reading level than the actual quality of the book. I found the prose challenging and had to reread some passages several times but still couldn’t grasp the meaning. Nonetheless, the book was beautiful and lovely at times and very painful at others, and, as a Queer, disabled person, I am glad I read it. I found that listening to the audiobook helped me follow a bit better. One of my favourite quotes from the book:

“if I try to compose anything but sad poems, I fear it’ll be akin to a widower trying to convince others that he has found happiness again by wearing a T-shirt that says HAPPINESS” (p. 94)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and Racism

Moderate: Genocide, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Infidelity and Medical trauma