Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

The Manicurist's Daughter by Susan Lieu

5 reviews

mondovertigo's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Body shaming, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Racism and Pregnancy

Minor: Racial slurs

okiecozyreader's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.25

I really enjoyed this memoir from a daughter of a Vietnamese immigrant who owned a nail salon. Her mother died young during plastic surgery and she spent a lot of her young years working on figuring herself out. She attended an Ivy League school, participated in a cult (disguised as a yoga, self-help program), and returned to Vietnam to know her family and her mother better. 

“How could I become a mother if I never knew my own?” Vengeance 

“I wanted to belong, I had to obey Má, which meant I had to abandon my own inner knowing.” Squid and Chives

“Don’t work so hard. We get to experience life on earth because of the heavens. When you live a life always resisting, life becomes a struggle,…” Packing

“I became so obsessed with the past that I kept everyone else frozen in time too. I became attached to old stories of how we’d hurt one another and didn’t allow my family to change even when they did.” Part 6, persimmons

“My name is Susan Liễu. I come from a line of courageous nail salon workers who are my heroes. Má was a manicurist, and Ba was a manicurist too. I am the manicurists’ daughter and, this is just the beginning.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Grief

m_a_j's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Medical trauma, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, and Vomit

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Death, Fatphobia, Dysphoria, Body shaming, Bullying, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, and Racism

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic and Pregnancy

caseythereader's review

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

Thanks to Celadon Books for the free copy of this book.

 - If you’re a lover of memoirs exploring intergenerational trauma, THE MANICURIST’S DAUGHTER is one you can’t miss.
- Lieu’s to-the-point writing brings all her pain to the surface as we follow her trying both to figure out who she is an who her family members are as well.
- As Lieu’s understanding of and empathy for her family members’ individual grief processes grows, we begin to see a portrait of a family doing its best to hold on to each other even as they’ve experienced the worst the world has to offer. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Mental illness, Fatphobia, Medical trauma, Eating disorder, Death of parent, Body shaming, Death, Pregnancy, Racism, War, and Grief

Minor: Suicide and Alcohol