Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up

Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up by Selma Blair

11 reviews

itsgnat's review against another edition

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informative sad slow-paced

3.5

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melissa_h's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

I have been wanting to pick up this book for a while now. Selma was not an actress I watched but I certainly knew of her and her career.

I really appreciate her oppenness. I want to watch her documentary 😭

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katieconklin's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.5

I knew almost nothing about Selma Blair before reading this book-- I just thought she was a cool and chic it-girl of the early 2000s. But man, she is pretty weird. Her honesty in this book is incredible, major content warnings in this one. Listening to the audiobook was a bit jarring due to the sheer amount of times she cried while reading it (it felt like at least once a chapter, typically more). I did find the book very interesting, but since I'm not a huge fan of hers it didn't have a lasting impact on me.

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kelly_e's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

Title: Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up
Author: Selma Blair
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 3.50
Pub Date: May 17, 2022

T H R E E • W O R D S

Vulnerable • Straightforward • Fitful

📖 S Y N O P S I S

The first story Selma Blair Beitner ever heard about herself is that she was a mean, mean baby. With her mouth pulled in a perpetual snarl and a head so furry it had to be rubbed to make way for her forehead, Selma spent years living up to her terrible reputation: biting her sisters, lying spontaneously, getting drunk from Passover wine at the age of seven, and behaving dramatically so that she would be the center of attention.

Although Selma went on to become a celebrated Hollywood actress and model, she could never quite shake the periods of darkness that overtook her, the certainty that there was a great mystery at the heart of her life. She often felt like her arms might be on fire, a sensation not unlike electric shocks, and she secretly drank to escape.

💭 T H O U G H T S

I've been on a celebrity memoir kick lately, and Selma Blair's was up next on the docket. Going in, I knew very little about the author aside from having seen her in a few movies (most notably Legally Blond - a favourite of mine). And I must say Mean Baby didn't wow me like some celebrity memoirs have.

Selma narrates her story in a non-linear manner, touching on her childhood - particularly her strained relationship with her parents, - her alcoholism and depression, her MS diagnosis, and life with her son. The first half has a fair amount of name dropping and superficial meandering, when in fact there could have been a lot more reflection and emotion. The strength of this memoir lies in her opening up about her MS diagnosis and living with a chronic illness. Yet even here there could have been a lot more depth.

I can't pinpoint exactly what this memoir was missing, but I know it was lacking something. It didn't pack the emotional punch I'd been anticipating, despite some extremely difficult and heartbreaking circumstances. It's Selma's right to remain very surface level in telling her story - but as a reader I wanted so much more depth.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• celebrity memoir fanatics
• readers wishing to learn a bit about MS

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Someone once told me that grief is love you can no longer express."

"I learned how it feels when someone else’s thoughts touch a part of you that you haven’t felt before."

"Books also taught me how to notice things, how a moment can be a whole story."

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