Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Dog Flowers: A Memoir by Danielle Geller

11 reviews

nordstina's review

3.25

In her memoir Dog Flowers, Danielle Geller charts her complicated history with her family, where the perils of alcoholism and drug use run rampant, causing chaos within the family. Her mother leaves her and her sister Eileen. Both her parents are alcoholics and Eileen also begins drinking and using drugs. The move around frequently, and this memoir really is a peek into what instability, trauma, and abuse can do to a family. It's a difficult read, as individuals continue to cycle through challenges. Danielle also gets to know her mother's Navajo family better and begins to embrace her Native American culture.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Domestic abuse, and Alcoholism

krys_kilz's review

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

This book was HEAVY, so please be mindful of the trigger warnings before reading. With that said, this memoir felt almost easy in a way even though the subject matter was anything but. As the friend I read it with put it, it was like listening to a friend.

Geller's voice was refreshing. She doesn't sugar coat anything nor does she attempt to give her pain/trauma a deeper meaning or poetic beauty. She simply lays it all out without apology. And that raw vulnerability felt like a breath of fresh air. As a survivor, your story doesn't have to prioritize other people's comfort or inspire others with your unbelievable strength. It doesn't have to be palatable. It can just be.

I especially appreciated how Geller spoke about forgiveness and the repeating cycles of addiction and recovery. And how you cannot force other people to change no matter how much you love them. 

Structuring the memoir around archived family photos, journal entries, and letters was also a really cool writing methodology. 

tw: death of a parent, alcoholism, addiction, child abuse, domestic abuse

"...the longer I stood there, the more I realized I wasn't angry at myself. I wasn't even angry at my mother. I was angry at things outside our control. I was angry at the broken communities we were born into, and the godly men who perpetuated the cycles of abuse. Who told us to seek happiness in ignorance and faith in a God who seemed indifferent to our suffering. Who taught us to forgive too readily, and that forgiveness restored power, when in my experience, forgiveness had only taken my power away."

"Can't you see? Everything keeps repeating. All of this has happened before. I don't want you to end up like our parents."
Eileen took my hands, drew them down into her lap, and looked into my eyes. "I'm just happy you made it out," she said, softly. "It had to get one of us, you know?"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

thunderousdandelion's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Drug use

buttermellow's review

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, and Suicide attempt

readswithnatalieb's review

4.0

 

This is a very tough memoir to read. If you’ve survived trauma, of pretty much any kind, this could be very triggering. 

 

I picked this book from Net Galley, wanting to learn more about the Navajo Nation, especially in nonfiction form (but also nonfiction is my jam). And while I learned a bit about Navajo Nation, it wasn’t what I expected! Most of the story doesn’t take place on a reservation, but Navajo cultural and lifestyle aspects are woven into the story. 

 

Geller’s tale was an absolute cry for help. She shows her soul telling bits from her childhood, into her teenage years, and adulthood. She does jump around quite a bit, so I couldn’t tell what was memory or what you’d consider present day, if that’s what she was trying to convey. She includes references about growing up as a minority, her dysfunctional family, and what it’s like being the glue for her family. 

 

Her mother passed away, her father is an alcohol, and her sister is addicted to drugs. She very much had me in my feelings wanting to give her a big hug, because being the glue of your family is such a tough task. I was super invested. 

 

Despite the sad stories, she includes photographs and letters from happier times in her life, reminding her where she came from and guiding her to who she wants to be. 

 

Content warnings: death of a parent, abuse, alcoholism, bullying, drugs, addition, racism. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug use, Addiction, and Racism

strickortreat's review

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Grief

sjanke2's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

 This book felt like a meeting point of In the Night of Memory and Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land. As a reader, I connected with Geller's former professions of walking streets during a political campaign (grueling) and being an information professional. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Child abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Violence

caseythereader's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.25

 📚 This use of the archive of Geller's life is incredible. It's such a unique structure for a memoir.
📚 Additionally, the photographs and other items help to remind the reader that this isn't just a parade of anonymous events, it's the life of a family.
📚 Reading a description of something awful her father did and then looking him in the eye on the next page...I can't even find words for it.
📚 There's so much in here about generational trauma and cycles of addiction and abuse, and yet, there is a feeling of healing and growth by the end of the book, even though things aren't "fixed" or "solved." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Violence

spaghettireads's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Death, and Grief

anishinaabekwereads's review

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Dog Flower by Danielle Geller is almost certainly not the Indigenous memoir most people will expect it to be. Geller, a Diné (Navajo) woman who grew up in Florida and Pennsylvania away from her homeland, documents with haunting starkness the frequent instability of her childhood, the death of her mother, and the costs addiction and violence take upon children. Needless to say there is a lot of pain within the pages of this memoir and there is little of the cultural tourism I suspect many people want or expect from Indigenous authors. Instead, we get a story of perspective, of piecing together lines and life. What we learn is the way addiction and violence are cyclical, repetitive beasts that become mundane in their breathless ability to make create a routine. Particularly, we learn what life is like for those who love and often feel induced to caregive for those who are struggling with substance abuse.It’s important to note here that this memoir is loving, is raw, and is both compelling and hard to look away from. Geller asks us to witness her history, the history of her mother, the history of her father and sisters.

Geller’s use of “the archive” is both intriguing and haunting. As you move through this memoir you see the construction of a familial archive, an archive of grief and of remembrance and presence. She pieces together her mother’s diaries, photographs, and her own memories to trace her mother’s absence from her childhood on. In that way, we watch as Geller tries to see things the way her mother might have, we watch as she tries to reconcile what may not be reconcilable. I found her use of [almost] footnotes to be a frequently effective mechanism. Buried at the bottom of many pages, in smaller font, Geller tells another story lodged within her own recountings and the effect is both academic and profoundly powerful even if their direct relation to the main body of text requires you to slow and consider.

There's a lot in this memoir that destroyed me, things I find hard to talk about, but remain with me the nonetheless. Know going in that this is not an easy book. Major CONTENT WARNINGS for addiction, alcoholism, domestic violence, sexual violence, sexual assauly, parent-child relationships, and death.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Grief, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship