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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
This is a unique memoir that creatively details Rowan’s life before, during, and after she escapes her soul crushing domestic abuse situation. Her journey is not easy, and there were many factors of a failed system that ultimately lead her to her relationships. But her healing journey is remarkable, and I won’t ever forget this memoir.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
reflective
sad
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
ARC from NetGalley / Dundurn Press / Rare Machines
Persephone’s Children: A Life in Fragments
This memoir is best described as ‘creative non-fiction’. Yes, Rowan McCandless tells us about her life: growing up in Canada with a white mother and a black father, racist bullying at school, sexual assault, abusive relationships, eating disorders, motherhood, her daughter nearly dying in childbirth… and more. However, the telling is by no means straightforward.
Described as ‘essays’, the different sections vary wildly in style and the subtitle ‘A Life in Fragments’ is accurate. These essays take the form of an A to Z of vocabulary, a contract, crossword clues, a wordsearch, a screenplay, poetry, extracts from a notebook and writing prompts, a glossary of cartography terms, botanical encyclopaedia entries, an inventory of homes, a scientific field report, notes on the colour orange, a quiz, a book of magic, a psychiatric report, an inventory of wants and needs… Along with other miscellanea.
It’s certainly unique, but I found some sections more interesting than others. Some parts are harder to follow and there is a bit of repetition as it’s technically a book of essays and not a straight memoir. The different styles made more of an impression than the actual story – some of the creativity seemed to overpower what the author wanted to say.
Three stars feels a little generous, but there were parts when I was very invested. I wouldn’t readily recommend this book, but if you like experimental literature and you want to read a memoir unlike no other – give this a go!
Thank you NetGalley and Dundurn Press for this ARC.
Persephone's Children was provided for free by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I read this on my kindle. 5/5 ⭐
The goddess Persephone has to straddle two worlds. As a mixed race woman, Rowan McCandless relates. In a collection of essays, Rowan shares with us her life. She shares her trauma, her recovery, and her resilience.
This book was powerful. Rowan was sexually assaulted at a young age, belittled and abused by her parents, abused by several husband's, and struggled with mental health issues like depression, anxiety and a restrictive eating disorder, all while facing the challenge of racism.
The essay in this book are brilliantly written. Some examples are; Rowan writes out the alphabet, introducing us to her complex family and giving a baseline of her life experiences. She writes a play, to showcase how difficult it was to work with her abusive husband, M. Rowan writes a full psychological evaluation, detailing how and why her voice isn't always around. Rowan detailed her stays in a crisis stabilization unit by identifying writing prompts.
The content of the essays isn't always in a linear time scale, focusing on several different time periods of Rowan's life simultaneously. I found it was appropriate, because when recalling trauma, memories arnt stirred up in a linear fashion.
Overall, This essay collection was powerful, captivating, and moving.
I highly recommend!
A note: I had difficulty with the formating of this book. Often pictures would appear halfway through sentences, and new essays would start on the same page as old ones. Pictures wouldn't load on many pages either. Sometimes new paragraphs would start within the previous paragraph. I'm not sure if this is intentional, or if when the PDF was loaded onto my Kindle it formated weird.
The goddess Persephone has to straddle two worlds. As a mixed race woman, Rowan McCandless relates. In a collection of essays, Rowan shares with us her life. She shares her trauma, her recovery, and her resilience.
This book was powerful. Rowan was sexually assaulted at a young age, belittled and abused by her parents, abused by several husband's, and struggled with mental health issues like depression, anxiety and a restrictive eating disorder, all while facing the challenge of racism.
The essay in this book are brilliantly written. Some examples are; Rowan writes out the alphabet, introducing us to her complex family and giving a baseline of her life experiences. She writes a play, to showcase how difficult it was to work with her abusive husband, M. Rowan writes a full psychological evaluation, detailing how and why her voice isn't always around. Rowan detailed her stays in a crisis stabilization unit by identifying writing prompts.
The content of the essays isn't always in a linear time scale, focusing on several different time periods of Rowan's life simultaneously. I found it was appropriate, because when recalling trauma, memories arnt stirred up in a linear fashion.
Overall, This essay collection was powerful, captivating, and moving.
I highly recommend!
A note: I had difficulty with the formating of this book. Often pictures would appear halfway through sentences, and new essays would start on the same page as old ones. Pictures wouldn't load on many pages either. Sometimes new paragraphs would start within the previous paragraph. I'm not sure if this is intentional, or if when the PDF was loaded onto my Kindle it formated weird.
This was a really interesting take on writing a memoir. Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!
It’s an account of McCandless’ journey to recovery after a lifetime of abuse. From a toxic home environment, she is catapulted into toxic relationships and marriages which ended up equally abusive.
I enjoyed the explorative nature of this. McCandless recounts her experiences of abuse and recovery not in the conventional memoir way, but instead through different collections of writing. This includes an A-Z of word association, memories from different addresses, memories associated with different trees, research data, psychiatrist reports, and word searches. This almost stream-of-consciousness style was really illuminating; I get the feeling that these sections were written as essays to help her come to terms with her experiences, and that these essays were then compiled into a book. Personally I quite enjoyed this approach - but it may not be to everyone’s tastes, and I did grow a bit tired of it towards the end as it felt like a repetition of the same points in different ways.
It does, at points, make for really tough and heartbreaking reading. However, it is some of the most breathtakingly beautiful, raw and perceptive writing I’ve come across in a while. As well as a personal testimony, it does also include some interesting social commentary; there were many elements of this that I found myself nodding in agreement with. Her perspective on life as a female of mixed heritage (and therefore highly vulnerable in an environment rife with racism and objectification) were enlightening.
It’s an account of McCandless’ journey to recovery after a lifetime of abuse. From a toxic home environment, she is catapulted into toxic relationships and marriages which ended up equally abusive.
I enjoyed the explorative nature of this. McCandless recounts her experiences of abuse and recovery not in the conventional memoir way, but instead through different collections of writing. This includes an A-Z of word association, memories from different addresses, memories associated with different trees, research data, psychiatrist reports, and word searches. This almost stream-of-consciousness style was really illuminating; I get the feeling that these sections were written as essays to help her come to terms with her experiences, and that these essays were then compiled into a book. Personally I quite enjoyed this approach - but it may not be to everyone’s tastes, and I did grow a bit tired of it towards the end as it felt like a repetition of the same points in different ways.
It does, at points, make for really tough and heartbreaking reading. However, it is some of the most breathtakingly beautiful, raw and perceptive writing I’ve come across in a while. As well as a personal testimony, it does also include some interesting social commentary; there were many elements of this that I found myself nodding in agreement with. Her perspective on life as a female of mixed heritage (and therefore highly vulnerable in an environment rife with racism and objectification) were enlightening.
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Persephone's Children is an unique, different memoir.
The vibes are "memoir x poetry collection" - made with an assortment of different formats, each Fragment tells you a new bit of the author's life. The writing style also contributed to the poetry feel.
This creative non-fiction creates a different type of interaction with the book and with the "story", and seems particularly fitting when discussing the parts of a life that deal with pain, abuse, discrimination/oppression and trauma.
Most of the book deals with heavy, dark moments /periods of McCandless life, mainly regarding her abusive relationships, and her road as a survivor. Other themes include race (biracial), eating disorders, sexual assault, being a mother, abortion, being a woman.
TW/CW: abortion, relationship/domestic abuse, sexual assault, racism, eating disorders, medical issues (specifically in giving birth).
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.
The vibes are "memoir x poetry collection" - made with an assortment of different formats, each Fragment tells you a new bit of the author's life. The writing style also contributed to the poetry feel.
This creative non-fiction creates a different type of interaction with the book and with the "story", and seems particularly fitting when discussing the parts of a life that deal with pain, abuse, discrimination/oppression and trauma.
Most of the book deals with heavy, dark moments /periods of McCandless life, mainly regarding her abusive relationships, and her road as a survivor. Other themes include race (biracial), eating disorders, sexual assault, being a mother, abortion, being a woman.
TW/CW: abortion, relationship/domestic abuse, sexual assault, racism, eating disorders, medical issues (specifically in giving birth).
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Gaslighting
Minor: Abortion
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.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Rowan McCandless writes about being in an abusive relationship and the damage and trauma this has caused, even long after she has decided to leave. The structure of this memoir is so interesting and unlike anything I'd read before: each chapter is written in a different format. One chapter takes the form of a contract; one is a crossword puzzle; one details a diagnosis of her vocal chords and the damage the relationship caused to her voice. My favourite (though this sounds strange to say about a book that deals with such difficult topics) was the chapter that took the form of a screenplay: she and her then-husband played fictionalised versions of themselves, and the director and writer kept trying to fit their story into different genres. The way McCandless writes about her experiences is so vulnerable and sincere. She talks about growing up in a mixed-race household and the complexities this brings; she discusses being sexually assaulted as a teenager and how the shame and guilt she felt influenced other events later in her life. She writes about writing and how this played a big part in her recovery after leaving her abusive husband. Though I don't think the format of the memoir always worked perfectly, I really loved the parts where it did and really admire McCandless for trying something so different. I enjoyed her writing and look forward to seeing what she writes next.