Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Strong Female Character by Fern Brady

17 reviews

laurenkimoto's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Dysphoria, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Ableism, Blood, Bullying, Eating disorder, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Biphobia, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Self harm, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Drug abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

amyford's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Gore, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Alcoholism, Rape, Eating disorder, Medical content, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, and Violence

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

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

amyvl93's review

challenging funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

Spotify's recent expansion into audiobooks finally tempted me to properly listen to one, and Fern Brady's memoir popped up and seemed like a good place to start. Strong Female Character hinges on Fern's very late diagnoses of Autism, in her mid-30s, and then looks back over her childhood and young adulthood as she experiences symptoms which are either ignored, explained away or treated as a symptom of something else.

This is a memoir that has left me thinking about it for days after I finished listening to it. I think Autism is still incredibly poorly understood, and Brady does a great job at effectively bringing her experience vividly to the page (and audio). Obviously one person's experience isn't necessarily indicative of every young woman with ASD's, but I appreciated how unflinching Brady was in sharing her experiences, and ultimately the insights from her therapist when she is finally able to find a healthcare professional who recognises and appropriately treats her symptoms.

The book also covers Brady's experience growing up in working class Scotland, and how she looked to both literature & education and then stand-up comedy as ways to get herself out of this environment. She reflects on the gender dynamics at play in her home community which I found interesting, as were her insights into the still very male-dominated comedy circuit.

The only aspect of the memoir that I didn't always jive with was that it often felt like the women in Brady's life receive far greater criticism than the men - including men who quite literally try to kill her. I'm not sure if this comes from a sense of women should be supporting women; and Brady sometimes makes some compelling points about gender dynamics, but a lot of this seems to be dismissed at an individual level. I would have liked a little more nuance her, but I can also understand that Brady was let down by a lot of women in positions of hierarchy and power as she grew up.

On the whole though this is a really great memoir, and would recommend listening to it on audio to get the full experience. It's one I'll definitely be thinking about.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Medical content, Drug use, and Eating disorder

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

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective tense slow-paced

4.0

It was difficult to read at times, but otherwise no notes.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Medical content, Ableism, Addiction, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, Violence, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Alcohol, Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Classism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, and Suicide

hanz's review against another edition

emotional informative fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, and Medical content

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, and Classism

katbenimble's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Please, please, please check trigger warnings before reading this book!

This memoir is described by the author as a tell-all, and she really did lay it all out for us - and in some really important ways.  I appreciate how Fern didn't back away from topics that would normally not be discussed and how she approached normalizing what everyday life looks like for her as an autistic woman.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Medical content, Grief, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Eating disorder, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Addiction, Bullying, and Classism

laurataylor's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Classism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fatphobia, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence