Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World by Kai Cheng Thom

11 reviews

bashsbooks's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

Thom approaches the issues within modern leftism with an understandable frustration and an unparalleled wit; this collection of essays and poems provide much-needed nuance and insight into thorny topics such as suicide (and the related responsibility of the community and agency of the dead) and sexual assault (including breaking down the perp/victim binary that doesn't allow for any grey areas). She also covers transmisogyny, racism, and class in similar depth. Despite these serious topics, Thom ends every essay with her glimmers of hope for the future. My favorite pieces in this collection were Genie, You're Free, if you should start to think forbidden thoughts, Chronical of a Rape Foretold, Complications of Consent, How Neoliberalism is Stealing Trans Liberation, siblings, Rediscovering My Identity at My Grandfather's Funeral, and Dear, Dear Life.

I highly recommend the entire book, and all of Thom's work (but please remember, she is only one imperfect woman, not a vessel for Leftist Truth!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Rape, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, Classism, Transphobia, Suicide, Sexual violence, and Racism

Moderate: Police brutality, Toxic relationship, and Stalking

Minor: Colonisation, Hate crime, Murder, Mental illness, and Medical trauma

katharina90's review

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

A well-written, insightful collection of essays interspersed with poems.

The essays cover a variety of topics related to the queer community and the trans lived experience with spot-on critiques of cultural issues in queer and social justice spaces, and thoughts on how to address these issues guided by an ethic of love.

Poems that stood out:
-boundaries 1 & 2
-the witch's manifesto

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Transphobia, Racism, Mental illness, and Sexual assault

lettuce_read's review

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Mental illness, and Suicide

Minor: Racism

solenodon's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

I want everyone to read this book tbh

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship

Moderate: Transphobia, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Death, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Minor: Sexual harassment, Infertility, Drug use, Alcohol, Colonisation, Medical content, Stalking, Homophobia, Dysphoria, Forced institutionalization, and Emotional abuse

thewordsdevourer's review

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

simply incredible. i hope we choose love is a rare feat, jam-packed w/ brutal honesty, startling vulnerability, tentative love and hope, and reflective rumination on mental illness and rarely examined topics such as queer community and its internal issues, today's social justice landscape, and ofc trans identity and community, seen through the author's complex lens as a trans woman of color. once in a blue moon, a book comes along, parts the veil in front of my eyes, and completely changes the way i view things. this is such a book and it's a marvel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Transphobia, Violence, Mental illness, and Suicide

Moderate: Physical abuse, Hate crime, Death, Murder, Classism, Racism, and Misogyny

Minor: Suicide attempt, Stalking, Colonisation, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

tangleroot_eli's review

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Complicated feelings about this one. I agree with many of Thom’s points and am sitting with many others. And a trans woman of the global majority’s rage and sadness are always understandable. And yet, in this book supposedly about love, I find very little love. Or maybe Thom and I just have vastly different understandings of love. I’m sitting with that, too.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Suicide, Transphobia, and Mental illness

caprivoyant's review

I'm actually quite enjoying this book — it's got a lot of good things to meditate and journal on — but I think I picked it up at the wrong time. There are some heavy topics in here and, although I'm getting gems and feeling seen and validated by so many of the essays/poems... My heart can't take some of the subject matter right now. I think I need more time with each essay/poem than the library is giving me. I've had it for a little over 5 weeks now and have only gotten 67 pages in... 🥺 

I'm going to give it back to the library and let someone enjoy it who's in a better place to soak in all the info right now. Maybe I'll pick it back up again later. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Rape, Mental illness, and Transphobia

bobsacoolword's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Reading the reviews for this book makes me realize I don't think anyone really knows who the target audience is and a lot of reviewers who are represented in the marginalized communities mentioned in the books have criticized the content of the books. I don't know if I feel comfortable giving a numerical review because both this book and the reviews have reminded me how much harder I need to work at educating myself on these topics. I am giving this book 4 stars because I found it informative and insightful, but also because it resonated with some of my own experiences. Ordinarily, I'd give any book that gave me as much as it did 5 stars, but I want to acknowledge that other reviewers have mentioned that some of the arguments made missed the mark for them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, and Violence

This book covers a lot of tough topics. I tried to pull from some of the most common content warning on reviews for the book, but I would definitely be prepared for things that can be tough to talk about.

alayamorning's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia

skudiklier's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

I started and finished this book on the same day, and basically couldn't put it down. I found it so engaging, helpful, thoughtful, and brilliant. Every time I thought the author might fall into a tired trope, she showed how she was really challenging it. I love how she makes clear what the core values of her life and the social justice movement are, and how her critiques have to do with the way the movement operates and forms relationships rather than with those values themselves. I really would recommend this book to anyone who is queer or a leftist, or interested in either of those things. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Grief and Toxic relationship

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, and Medical content