Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Strong Female Character by Fern Brady

41 reviews

emma_sky's review

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dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

3.25


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pat_sc's review against another edition

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

5.0

Gutwrenching but simply wonderful in her sincerity. 

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paddy_chh's review against another edition

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emotional funny informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0


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thebookdragon_taylorsversion's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny medium-paced

4.0


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tetrootz's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0


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bookscattracks's review against another edition

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3.0

I'll be honest, it's been hard for me to know what to write about this book. I feel strange passing judgement on a memoir like this, rating it, when it contains the content that it does. If anyone is thinking about reading, I'd say make sure you're aware of that first. 

Overall, this is a book about autism, and there were a lot of good points brought up, that I hope other people who have maybe struggled with autism, and been misdiagnosed, can find helpful. It is a book about autism, but there is also so much trauma. Again, I don't really feel right passing judgement on someone's personal story, and I know that using comedy to speak about difficult times in your life, can help some people. But I just couldn't find it funny. 

There was also a lot of language and thinking that didn't sit right with me, including fatphobia, double standards with other women, and just the general looking down on others. Again, it made it hard for me to laugh along. Maybe I am just doing the usual of focusing on the negatives, but this was a tough read for me.

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merfdiff's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.25


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alyshab2005's review

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emotional funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I've been a fan of Fern Brady's stand-up for a while now...I love her intelligent and blunt insights. Here she tells her own story of isolation and confusion as an undiagnosed autistic woman. She's incredibly honest about the less social acceptable parts of living with autism (breaking furniture, physical assault, unhealthy relationships). Still, at so many points in the book you feel just intense empathy and worry for her. I love that she doesn't try to tie up the end with a pretty bow, but leaves it still unresolved, a work in progress.  I especially recommend the audio book as she reads it herself.

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lbelow's review

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5.0

Powerful and powerfully relatable memoir. Prior to reading, I was pretty sure I'm not autistic, but so many experiences in this book make me wonder. Maybe that was why I glommed onto this book so hard. Then again, it could just be the engaging and open way Fern Brady writes. This book discusses some heavy topics but, maybe because of the light, casual tone, it didn't feel like a dark book. 

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emmajuned's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

I can’t say I enjoyed the book, even though I preordered the paperback through my love of Fern and her openness about her autism in interviews, but it was interesting and informative about autism. I’m self diagnosed (my father was diagnosed late in life and I have a lot in common with him) and this both confirmed my diagnosis and informed me of a wealth of things which I didn’t realise were autistic but I’d been doing all my life: clawing, planning conversations, replaying scenarios, hating being touched, loud noises, over enthusiasm for my passions, etc. I read it as a medical encyclopaedia with an endearing protagonist. She’s lead an eventful life for sure, and I’m glad the book could end on a slightly hopeful, inspiring note but something I’d already concluded myself. It’s nice to have confirmation, especially from someone who seems to have been through more extremes than me to get there.

At times, reading the book was difficult. I felt Fern was being punished a lot and unnecessarily, and how it was described lacked the humorous twists that could have made the book more entertaining, but I think then we wouldn’t have taken it seriously. The gaping hole in society and the medical support available to people with autism, especially adults, especially women, is glaring and ridiculous. The book felt gloomy and depressing in a very personal, private way that will be familiar to other autistics. Strangely, it gave me comfort for that very reason.

I applaud Fern for writing this. Having only discovered her after her appearance on Taskmaster, it’s strangely fitting that the story ends there, like catching up with a new friend. She’s so brave and inspiring, and I want her to know that she has succeeded. I feel better for knowing what she has been through, I feel heard, she has pushed society on to understanding a little bit more (perhaps a big bit).

I wish 8 was better at expressing my feelings for this…. But you know, autistic!

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