Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Strong Female Character by Fern Brady

13 reviews

kell_xavi's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny informative medium-paced

4.0

Memoir by multilingual Scottish comedian, working class autistic woman, fashion icon, and former stripper Fern Brady. Brady’s experience of autism, depression, and anxiety is very unlike my own—different class, culture, field, and gender context, as well as 2 decades and celebrity status separate us—yet a lot of it is familiar, and the added stories (descriptions, frustrations, examples) are appreciated. I hope all of us women and trans autistics can find ways to be comfortable and safe with ourselves. I hope books like these can help us to be seen.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Misogyny, Mental illness, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Violence, Homophobia, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Police brutality and Rape

misdiagnosis

tetrootz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Body shaming, Self harm, Grief, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Fatphobia, Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Rape, Eating disorder, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, Drug use, Ableism, Classism, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Vomit, Physical abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Police brutality and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Dementia

jillyclaire23's review

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Woah. I feel very raw after reading this book. I am so glad it exists, and I am grateful for Fern’s full honesty about her life as a late-diagnosed autistic woman who grew up poor and struggles with meltdowns. Her openness helps other autistic women feel less alone. Even though I’ve done my fair share of research about neurodivergence (duh), I managed to learn new facts, like how medicine affects autistic people differently than allistics because our nervous systems are so sensitive. That’s really important information to know!! There is simply not enough research out there on neurodivergence so we have to rely on each other.

I was wishing for a slightly more hopeful ending to help me recover from reading how many traumatic things happened to Fern. I guess I appreciate that she didn’t try to tie it up into a pretty bow. In the conclusion, though, it almost felt like she was conceding to the “autism parents” out there who are raising autistic kids instead of addressing actual autistic adult readers and giving them hope. This felt uncharacteristic of her since she discussed the problem of autism research being geared toward parents of autistic children and disregarding the fact that those kids grow up to be adults. So the ending was slightly disappointing, but it still moved me. My other issue is her fat-shaming and negative descriptions of people’s appearances. Also, I would’ve appreciated if her descriptions of other women and her relationship to them were more problematized—a lot of them came off as internalized misogyny. 

Despite this, I am grateful for any chance to hear from another autistic woman and her experience. Like she says in the book, learning about your neurotype is like a REALLY accurate Meyers-Briggs test. The sense of community I get in hearing her talk about experiences that resemble my own is pretty lifechanging. I also appreciated reading about her unusual career path in life. It’s hard to be surrounded by unrealistic neurotypical narratives all the time! 

After reading, I promptly watched her interviews and comedy specials. She’s awesome. Her understanding and sense of justice when it comes to the experiences and treatment of neurodivergent people are refreshing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, and Police brutality

mads_jpg's review against another edition

challenging dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Really interesting memoir about life as an autistic woman, I'm a big fan of Fern Brady's comedy and knew about her diagnosis, but was surprised to see this was the main focus of the book. Really well written and very funny, tempted to listen to the audiobook too since I spent most of this book trying to read it in her voice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Classism, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Alcohol, Grief, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, Biphobia, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Physical abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Sexual content, Addiction, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Medical trauma, and Misogyny

smillas_tales's review

dark funny reflective fast-paced

As an afab autistic person diagnosed in their twenties, this was an incredible book! I don’t share many traits with Brady, but I still related to some of her views of the world, and it was so reaffirming.

My only issue with this novel is Brady’s fatphobia. I’m sure no ill harm is meant, but the frequent comments regarding size and looks, and how these are used to emphasize the negative character of individual stood out to me and took away from my reading experience.

I’ll have a full review up at some point, when I get the time and energy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Eating disorder, and Ableism

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Fatphobia, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Biphobia, Abandonment, Infidelity, Police brutality, Misogyny, Classism, and Suicidal thoughts

bearystarry's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

4.75

I feel incredibly seen by this memoir. I’m… probably going to reread and annotate this almost immediately.

Just wish there was less fatphobia. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Violence, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Eating disorder, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Grief, Self harm, Drug use, Death, Cursing, Adult/minor relationship, Ableism, Abandonment, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Bullying, and Alcohol

Moderate: Police brutality, Sexual violence, Fatphobia, and Vomit

Minor: Rape, Racism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

wheelyautistic's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Brilliant memoir from one of my favourite comics. I love how honest and real Fern is about their life and how even now they are still working through their autistic journey of acceptance. This is a great book for anyone but particularly AFAB autistics or those who suspect they may be autistic. It isn't a self help book, far from it, but that's what makes it amazing because it allows a lot of people to relate to the difficult things they have also experienced as Autistic people. Fern inadvertly breaks the stereotypical autistic female mould and shows how being autistic can look outside of the typical white male presenting autistic representation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Ableism, Bullying, Death, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body shaming, Hate crime, Chronic illness, Classism, Cursing, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Sexism, Police brutality, Physical abuse, War, Violence, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Excrement, and Police brutality

tea_at_mole_end's review

emotional hopeful informative reflective

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Domestic abuse, and Self harm

Moderate: Ableism, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Sexual content, and Bullying

Minor: Racism, Terminal illness, Vomit, Excrement, Police brutality, Infidelity, Rape, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, Drug use, Death, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Fatphobia, and Alcohol

lydias1's review

dark funny informative sad fast-paced

3.5

A good book that I’d recommend to many! Very autistically written - efficient, direct and honest. I felt very seen. Worth adding a few trigger warnings as Fern very bluntly and explicitly discusses suicide, self-harm and abuse. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cursing, Ableism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Physical abuse, Addiction, Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Sexual violence, Mental illness, and Rape

Moderate: Police brutality

3readingcircus's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Self harm, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Murder, Abortion, Rape, and Adult/minor relationship