Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Finding Me

I listened to the Finding Me audiobook, narrated by the author, Viola Davis. If you get an opportunity to listen to the memoir, I’d highly recommend it as it plunges you deep into Davis’ story. She conveyed so many emotions with her voice and acting skills that you won’t notice the 9h+ of this audiobook.

I’ve gained an insight into her underprivileged childhood, the trauma and hardship that she had to face from a very young age. After listening to her story, I understood how resilient and dedicated she has been all her life. She is transparent about her issues with low self-esteem, the difficulties of landing roles as a dark skin actress, going to therapy, her fibroids, infertility and her journey to healing and self-love.

Viola, as the main character, is well developed and layered. We understand her thought process, her fears and aspirations, what motivated her career choice and her relationship with her parents and husband, Julius.

I particularly enjoyed how layered and complex her father was —from an abusive and violent husband to a remorseful, caring and doting husband and grandfather. She doesn’t sugar coat. She has depicted her parents and siblings —flaws and all— with truthfulness and grace. I wish her mother’s character was developed a bit deeper, I felt that she wasn’t as layered as the father’s character.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience. I recommend the audiobook to fans and non-fans of Viola Davis, as the memoir offers a deep introspection into the life of a poverty-stricken little girl who fulfilled her big bold dreams in Hollywood and in her personal life.

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brookey8888's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

This was really good! I honestly knew nothing about her when I picked this up, I just liked her as an actress. I didn’t realize the life she lived and how amazing and inspiring that makes her. This has some really dark topics, but there’s a lot of light as well. I really enjoyed her talking about healing her younger self. This did make me tear up when she was talking about her father dying and how they see the ones that passed before they go. I’m excited to watch more things she’s in because I realize I haven’t seen all that much.

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_evyn_'s review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad

5.0

Viola is a true artist. She's so vulnerable and open about her life in this book. She talks about her complex relationships with the acting industry, her family, partners, and most importantly, herself. I love the way she explains her struggles because there are moments I can relate to and moments I could not have truly understood until her depiction and imagery and rawness. You can feel sympathy the world over for another's problems and trauma but if you don't REALLY understand what they're going through and how they're affected, you won't have empathy. Without empathy, you tend to listen to stories only for what you can relate to instead of what is actually being said. With empathy, you still have a bias about the more important aspects of the history, but it doesn't stop you from hearing and (hopefully) understanding the whole truth. I felt with her every time she had to step back and question a barrier in her life. She made me think about the choices I've made and what my future could look like (not in relation to her life, but the questions she asks herself or that others ask her, prompted me to try to answer them for myself).
Would highly recommend.

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anastasia_raf's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

I don't think you can "rate" a person's life, so I'm just rating the pacing, the writing and the overall composition of the book.
I kept reading and reading and often wondered how did she kept on going? I know What kept her going, but still...how was that enough? A lot of her experiences brought me to tears, terrified me, and made me think of how lucky I am and how much protection, opportunity and "luck" White privilege provides.
Viola Davis is an incredible actor and so very talented in so many fields.
There were a lot of quotes from this memoir that stuck with me.
Here's one of them: "stop making love to something that's killing you."

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