Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Maame by Jessica George

14 reviews

nanirump's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Medical content, Sexual content, Drug use, Gaslighting, Terminal illness, Misogyny, Chronic illness, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Homophobia, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

dejah_sowells's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Terminal illness, Grief, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Racism, Infidelity, Gaslighting, Suicide, Classism, and Sexual content

aerialwhitney's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Racism, Abandonment, Gaslighting, and Grief

sophs_mood_reading's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Maame: Woman; the responsible one. 

When a nickname becomes a life burden. This is what life is for Maddie. The youngest child and only daughter of a family in London. Her mother flees to Ghana for years at a time, her brother is too busy and her father has Parkinson’s and relies on her for his care. 

But is this all life is for Maddie, can she change, does she want to change, she better google it. 

This novel is about the beautiful self discovery of a 25 year old woman who’s family put to much on her and others around her take advantage of her. 

I loved how her story unfolded, life forced her to change and question her life choices, her mental state and who she wants to be, all with the help of a google search. 

This was a beautiful insight into family dynamics, mental illness, discrimination and found family. 

At first I got annoyed by Maddie’s googling every question she had and talking out loud to herself but as the book continued I realised why she did it and why it was needed. 

Highly recommend this read but there are some triggers so be kind to yourself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Drug use, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Racism, and Sexual content

thirdeyeangel23's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Maame is the story of our late bloomer Maddie. After years of being her father’s caretaker and sole provider for her family, Maddie is in desperate need of finding a live that is all her own. While I believe this story has some important messages about how our daughters are treated, especially within black families, there were definitely some issues for me. For a woman who is highly educated Maddie is often written in a way that completely undervalues her strength and quite frankly makes her look stupid. These constant Google searching throughout the book eventually felt over-done for comedic relief. There is also some unfortunate bi-phobia within Maddie’s story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Medical content, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Gaslighting, Racism, and Biphobia

bookish_wanderer's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent

Moderate: Racism and Suicide

Minor: Gaslighting and Toxic relationship

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Alcohol, Cursing, Racism, Suicide, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Abandonment, Body horror, Dysphoria, Dementia, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

ooohgoshtara's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi but in my case, it means woman.
A coming of age story featuring twenty something Maame. Her family refers to her as Maame but her name is Maddie. She's the main caretaker for her father who has parkinsons. She's responsible for maining her entire household financially since her mother lives mostly abroad and her older brother is rarely available to help. So they selfishly leave all of the responsibility on Maame. When her mom comes home from living abroad Maame jumps at the chance to move out and have a life of her own free from responsibilities that have been smothering her. This story explores chronic disease, death of a parent, grief, identity, mental health, childhood trauma, etc. I did enjoy some aspects of the novel. I did root for Maame but had a hard time staying connected with her character. I do get that she led a very sheltered life and people deal with trauma in many ways. She had very real responsibility caring for her family and household. But that responsibility also stunted her to the point of being written very unrealistically to me. She becomes even more lost when the responsibility of her father is permanently  taken from her. There were a lot of internal monologues paired with the constant consulting of google for very basic information. As a woman in her mid twenties she was written as being very naive more like a YA character. I found her sexual encounters disturbing. I liked that the ending was not perfectly tied up. I was happy that Maame finally started getting professional help from a therapist. She stood up to her family, spoke up for herself at work and finally had a normal dating situation. She was making strides towards becoming Maddie and no longer just Maame. Although I have mixed feelings about this book as a whole I would recommend to a twenty something.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, and Grief

purplepenning's review

emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

This is an exceptionally written character-driven book (with a couple of plot-driven gut punches) that captures the current moment in a way that reminds me of Such a Fun Age. For some reason, I didn't realize the depth of the grief and loss that would be explored, so definitely check those content notes. It also explores racism in the workplace and relationships, pressures of first gen immigrants, modern dating, Google as parent/mentor/friend, loneliness, sexual pressure and pleasure for women, found family, mental health, and more. It's all packed into a deceptively simple story about a daughter with an overly developed sense of responsibility and an underdeveloped support system. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Biphobia, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Cursing, and Homophobia

Minor: Suicide

More specifics on the grief and loss:

Maddie's experiences surrounding the death of a parent are a gut punch, including a missed opportunity to say goodbye, the painful conversations surrounding the arrangement of services, and the grieving process afterwards

merylas's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I found this book to be difficult to read but even more difficult to put down because there were A LOT of parts I related to this story. I wish I had this book closer to

my father’s passing

. I wonder if it would have helped me make better choices and treat myself better.

I don’t know how people who haven’t experienced these major themes

death (specifically one that makes you lose your center) and/or parentification

will feel about this book; I hope that they will let Jess’s strong writing teach them and/or prepare them. I also don’t know how those who have will either I guess. Will it be too hard? As such, I can’t recommend this book but I wish people did so that I have someone to lean on and discuss it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Medical trauma