Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Dog Flowers: A Memoir by Danielle Geller

5 reviews

lady_bountiful's review

dark emotional reflective sad

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Addiction, and Alcohol

wenona66's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

a really nice flow with sections of Danielle's life that were told kind of in vignettes. I liked the way it wasn't too detached while still being quite to-the-point-- there are no apologies for what she writes about and there is no trying to make it more palatable for the reader. You learn a lot about Geller by the way she writes about the events in the memoir. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Child abuse

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

rorikae's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

3.75

'Dog Flowers' by Danielle Geller is a memoir that centers on Geller's memories of her mother interwoven with artifacts from her mother's life. The memoir is populated with photographs, letters, and other pieces that Geller found in her mother's belongings. As an archivist, Geller uses these pieces to supplement her own recollections of her mother as she delves into her memories as well as the aftermath of her mother's death. 
I really enjoyed the play of written essays with archival materials from Geller's mother. The addition of these pieces elevated the text and made it unique in a way that stands out from other memoirs that only utilize words. I do wish that these pieces had been interwoven more frequently into the text. They are inserted in groups, which works as a great supplement to the essays but I would have loved to see more direct commentary from Geller on specific pieces, especially those that include her. 
This is a hard memoir to read as Geller had a traumatic childhood and her family deals with a great deal of addiction, loss, and mental health issues. Geller does a great job of interweaving the different struggles that her family has gone through with her own quest to learn and understand more about her past. I hope that this will inspire more works that utilize archival pieces paired with memoir. I really enjoyed the audiobook but I will say that I recommend having the ebook or a physical copy on hand as well as the descriptions of the pieces are not quite a match for actually seeing them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Death and Suicidal thoughts

sophnbooks's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

4.0

It’s hard to ever find the words to “review” a memoir. However, this is a challenging story of a Navajo woman grieving her mother after she passes and it’s very well organized. The author, Danielle Geller, even includes photographs and documents that correspond with the passages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Addiction, Sexual content, Grief, Drug abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, and Mental illness