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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
Our author tells the story of leaving her verbally and emotionally abusive third husband and the aftermath. She has been silenced so often that it takes a while to find her voice. This memoir in fragments is the result of finding her voice.
Negatives for me were the fragmented nature of the tale, and the fact that I listened to it as an audiobook. McCandless tells the story in unique formats, like a contract, a crossword puzzle, a glossary, etc. Because so much of the storytelling is done this way, I'd skip the audiobook and look at the physical or e-book instead. Because this is a series of pieces strung together as a memoir, it gets repetitive in some places as well.
The positives are that McCandless does have some moments of really beautiful writing and insight into being a multi-racial woman who experiences an eating disorder and multiple abusive relationships. This is the type of story rarely told.
I did find myself really caring about the author and cheering for her by the end of the book, so I don't want to discourage anybody else from reading it. Do go in knowing that it's probably better NOT to listen to the audiobook and that this story is told in unconventional ways.
Negatives for me were the fragmented nature of the tale, and the fact that I listened to it as an audiobook. McCandless tells the story in unique formats, like a contract, a crossword puzzle, a glossary, etc. Because so much of the storytelling is done this way, I'd skip the audiobook and look at the physical or e-book instead. Because this is a series of pieces strung together as a memoir, it gets repetitive in some places as well.
The positives are that McCandless does have some moments of really beautiful writing and insight into being a multi-racial woman who experiences an eating disorder and multiple abusive relationships. This is the type of story rarely told.
I did find myself really caring about the author and cheering for her by the end of the book, so I don't want to discourage anybody else from reading it. Do go in knowing that it's probably better NOT to listen to the audiobook and that this story is told in unconventional ways.
An interesting book about a woman’s journey. I enjoyed it. It was something new to me and I learned more about someone who I might not have met otherwise.
Fantastic autobiographical essays with wonderfully non-traditional forms. This an excellent example of work, especially if you're interested in the Hermit Crab Essay.
Persephone's Children is an incredibly unique memoir told in a multitude of styles, all representing different aspects and moments in Rowan McCandless's life. Over the course of the memoir you discover not only McCandless's story, but also elements of your own story throughout the connection with another.
I really enjoyed this novel. I've never read a memoir as uniquely told as this one (a crossword chapter, anyone?) and every moment throughout it I found myself leaning closer and closer, eager to see the growth and change and strength that comes through so many moments of difficulty and strife. This memoir really honors McCandless's story, and I found myself completely drawn into figuring out how she had the strength to accomplish all of the things she did. None of this could have been easy to write, let alone live through, and I want to thank McCandless for feeling open enough to share her story with the world.
Thank you Dundurn Press and NetGalley for the eARC!
I really enjoyed this novel. I've never read a memoir as uniquely told as this one (a crossword chapter, anyone?) and every moment throughout it I found myself leaning closer and closer, eager to see the growth and change and strength that comes through so many moments of difficulty and strife. This memoir really honors McCandless's story, and I found myself completely drawn into figuring out how she had the strength to accomplish all of the things she did. None of this could have been easy to write, let alone live through, and I want to thank McCandless for feeling open enough to share her story with the world.
Thank you Dundurn Press and NetGalley for the eARC!
dark
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Rowan McCandless created a unique memoir by a series of inventive essays, some of those resembling dictionary or encyclopedia entries, others looking like crosswords and puzzles, while another looked like daily journal entries with prompts and one was written like a play. In this unorthodox but creative way, McCandless discusses all the hardships that she went through in her life including abuse, trauma, and loss.
Persephone's Children is the proof that there is no limit in the ways we can tell our stories and that through skillful techniques more and more groundbreaking stories come to light every day.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Persephone's Children is the proof that there is no limit in the ways we can tell our stories and that through skillful techniques more and more groundbreaking stories come to light every day.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
Through Persephone’s Children, Rowan McCandless has created a unique and beautifully crafted memoir that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading. McCandless employs a variety of techniques throughout her essays to navigate through her experiences and articulate her journey through heartbreak, abuse, oppression, and trauma. We are introduced to McCandless’ world in her first essay, an alphabetic acrostic. She goes on to use the format of a contract to indicate how her husband controlled her, the rules that he imposed on her, and the abuse that she suffered. Other literary devices include crossword clues, writing prompts to explore varying aspects of her life, construction reports, and an inventory. My personal favourites were a quiz entitled “Hunger Games”, which allowed her to describe her struggle with an eating disorder and how the ways in which her family’s shaping of her identity contributed to this, and a short involving interactions with a director and scriptwriter as she and her husband took their respective parts in the script written for them to relay their relationship. Noteworthy in the latter is the blame placed on McCandless for the failings of the relationship, indicating her thoughts and feelings about her role as a victim of abuse. I also thought it was interesting how she identified with Persephone, a mythological character who has “a dual identity as queen of the underworld and as Kore the maiden and goddess of fertility. [McCandless] wondered how Persephone felt having to perpetually straddle two worlds through no fault of her own”. Born to a white mother and Black father, McCandless’ biracial roots and dual identity are woven through her essays.
Ultimately, McCandless uses these methods of storytelling to enable herself to work through the trials of her journey to this point, but it makes for incredibly remarkable reading and a unique insight into the mind of a woman that has suffered from abuse, burden, loss, and a search for identity for a large part of her life. What never fails to come through this all is the love she has for her daughters, which is testament to the strength and resilience of her character.
(4.5)
Through Persephone’s Children, Rowan McCandless has created a unique and beautifully crafted memoir that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading. McCandless employs a variety of techniques throughout her essays to navigate through her experiences and articulate her journey through heartbreak, abuse, oppression, and trauma. We are introduced to McCandless’ world in her first essay, an alphabetic acrostic. She goes on to use the format of a contract to indicate how her husband controlled her, the rules that he imposed on her, and the abuse that she suffered. Other literary devices include crossword clues, writing prompts to explore varying aspects of her life, construction reports, and an inventory. My personal favourites were a quiz entitled “Hunger Games”, which allowed her to describe her struggle with an eating disorder and how the ways in which her family’s shaping of her identity contributed to this, and a short involving interactions with a director and scriptwriter as she and her husband took their respective parts in the script written for them to relay their relationship. Noteworthy in the latter is the blame placed on McCandless for the failings of the relationship, indicating her thoughts and feelings about her role as a victim of abuse. I also thought it was interesting how she identified with Persephone, a mythological character who has “a dual identity as queen of the underworld and as Kore the maiden and goddess of fertility. [McCandless] wondered how Persephone felt having to perpetually straddle two worlds through no fault of her own”. Born to a white mother and Black father, McCandless’ biracial roots and dual identity are woven through her essays.
Ultimately, McCandless uses these methods of storytelling to enable herself to work through the trials of her journey to this point, but it makes for incredibly remarkable reading and a unique insight into the mind of a woman that has suffered from abuse, burden, loss, and a search for identity for a large part of her life. What never fails to come through this all is the love she has for her daughters, which is testament to the strength and resilience of her character.
(4.5)
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
Difficult to read. Details are repeated while others are left out, leaving huge holes in the narrative. The variation in story design makes for a confusing and disjointed read. Skimmed the second half
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse
i received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
content warnings: emotional, physical, and psychological abuse, gaslighting, intergenerational trauma, anti-black racism
i'll admit, this almost became a DNF for me based off of the first 14%, and i think that's a shame, because mccandless makes a lot of innovative and frankly groundbreaking formatting and writing decisions throughout, but beginning the book with an alphabetical list of key words that will be used throughout the book, when the reader hasn't been introduced to the narrator just yet, made it very difficult to get through. when i finished the book, i thought very distinctly that the first and last sections of the book should be swapped - it makes far more sense for the 'needs/wants' section to begin the book and the alphabetical glossary to conclude it. as i finish it, i think that the digital formatting of the book is probably to its own detriment, and that anyone that's interested in reading it would enjoy a physical copy more. the digital formatting made it difficult to scroll back and forth to gain context, to 'flip' through the pages to connect a lot of the larger sections of the book, and overall made what i know to be a cohesive novel disjointed.
content warnings: emotional, physical, and psychological abuse, gaslighting, intergenerational trauma, anti-black racism
i'll admit, this almost became a DNF for me based off of the first 14%, and i think that's a shame, because mccandless makes a lot of innovative and frankly groundbreaking formatting and writing decisions throughout, but beginning the book with an alphabetical list of key words that will be used throughout the book, when the reader hasn't been introduced to the narrator just yet, made it very difficult to get through. when i finished the book, i thought very distinctly that the first and last sections of the book should be swapped - it makes far more sense for the 'needs/wants' section to begin the book and the alphabetical glossary to conclude it. as i finish it, i think that the digital formatting of the book is probably to its own detriment, and that anyone that's interested in reading it would enjoy a physical copy more. the digital formatting made it difficult to scroll back and forth to gain context, to 'flip' through the pages to connect a lot of the larger sections of the book, and overall made what i know to be a cohesive novel disjointed.