Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

11 reviews

readbyroska's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

5.0

Read it if any of the following applies to you, and you can’t find your peace:

you’re feeling lost, hopeless, not good enough, deserving but unlucky, regretful, guilty, ashamed, disempowered, confused, heartbroken, lonely, isolated, alone, misunderstood, underachieving. 

Read if you are a partner, wife, husband, mother, father, boyfriend, girlfriend, daughter, son, child, friend, fuck buddy, teacher, student.

Read it if you don’t have anyone in your life who can love you and know you but still tell it to your straight. 

You will find something here for you, so sift through and find it.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Miscarriage, Infidelity, Dysphoria, Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Death, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Child death, Classism, Car accident, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Abortion, Incest, Addiction, Cancer, Transphobia, Rape, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Eating disorder, Drug use, and Drug abuse

koplomps's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Incest, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Car accident, Child death, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Cancer, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Toxic friendship, Abortion, Bullying, Grief, Addiction, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Infertility

jackierabbit's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

I think I desperately needed to hear this:

”There is nothing more boring and fruitless than a woman lamenting the fact that her stomach is round.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Animal death, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Death, Grief, and Incest

Moderate: Child death, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, and Rape

I definitely missed some trigger warnings but there were so many I can’t remember them. If I had known about them, I wouldn’t have read the book. It’s so heavy. Despite that, I know that it helped me a little bit, deal with some of the things that have happened to me.

absolutely_court's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Ableism, Abortion, Child death, Cursing, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Incest, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Toxic friendship

cosmic_blooms's review

emotional medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Addiction, Child abuse, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Pregnancy, Drug use, Fatphobia, Incest, Cursing, Alcoholism, Rape, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Suicide

novella42's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book has been my favorite book for the last ten years. It's a steadfast and heart-wrenching masterpiece. It's a collection of advice column responses unlike anything I have ever seen, because she doesn't hide behind the anonymity of the column but instead bares her soul in the most unexpected and vitally human ways. 
 

Strayed cusses eloquently and covers a wide number of topics with wit, humor, and deep compassion. She speaks openly about her childhood sexual abuse and a number of the letters have to do with sexual violence. She also helps readers address alcoholism, drug abuse, adultery, domestic violence, grief, miscarriage, and existential crises.

A friend who is a survivor showed me her copy on the night she shared her story with me, and said how much the book had meant to her. Since then I have read it many times at many different places in my mental health journey, but it may be too raw or intense for someone in the early stages of healing from trauma or dealing with active flashbacks/nightmares. 

It cracks me open every time, but also holds my hand as we put the pieces back together. I need to read it again soon.

The author-read audiobook is powerful. She's also quotable AF in any medium:

"The story of human intimacy is one of constantly allowing ourselves to see those we love most deeply in a new, more fractured light. Look hard. Risk that."

"Healing is a small and ordinary and very burnt thing. And it's one thing and one thing only: it's doing what you have to do."

"We like to think we're right about what we believe about ourselves and what we often believe are only the best, most moral things. We like to pretend that our generous impulses come naturally. But the reality is we often become our kindest, most ethical selves only by seeing what it feels like to be selfish assholes first."

"There is no why. You don’t have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt. You have an obligation to play the hell out of the ones you’re holding."

"I'll never know, and neither will you, of the life you don't choose. We'll only know that whatever that sister life was, it was important and beautiful and not ours. It was the ghost ship that didn't carry us. There's nothing to do but salute it from the shore."

"Whatever happens to you belongs to you. Make it yours. Feed it to yourself even if it feels impossible to swallow. Let it nurture you, because it will." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Child death, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Grief, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Child abuse, Cursing, Alcoholism, and Death

iamnita's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

5.0

This book was suggested by a friend, and I couldn't thank her more for the recommendation. It is told in a series of letters to the people writing in, and they describe issues they're dealing with and Dear Sugar responds. The responses are sometimes long-winded before you understand why that story was told, and that made it more endearing. I absolutely plowed through this book given that it reads quite fast, and the individual letters don't take too long before you want to read another. Just a gem. A definite to have on the shelf and flip through from time to time.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Cursing, Alcoholism, Grief, Infertility, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Sexual assault, Rape, Pregnancy, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Terminal illness, Murder, and Miscarriage

roaaexe's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad

4.5

 This is not just advice on love and life, she gave advice on everything. The way she answers these questions and how she pulls examples from her life and from others' lives, is so impactful. Her writing is beautiful, she would give analogies that just work so well. I found myself laughing and crying as I read this, and it's exactly what I needed.

هذا الكتاب هو مجموعة اجوبة "سكر" ونصائحها بعمود اسئلة لمجلة The Rumpus.
العنوان يذكر ان النصائح هي عن الحب والحياة لكن هي اعطت نصائح لكل شيء. طريقتها بالاجابة وكيف استوحت امثلة من حياتها ومن حياة الاشخاص الي حواليها كانت مؤثرة جدا. كتابتها جميلة للغاية ، استخدمت العديد من التشبيهات التي يكون لها اثر قوي بالقاريء. خلال قرائتي لهذا الكتاب ضحكت وبكيت وبعض الاجوبة كانت بالضبط ما احتجت سماعه. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Suicide

immodestgender's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

Honestly incredible book. Sugar has a way of seeing the world that is all at once heartbreaking and immensely hopeful. I was given this by my partner and I hadn't finished it before I bought a copy for my Mum. It really helped me do some much needed processing about a past relationship and look at the world a little differently. My only gripe is that Sugar at one point describes someone who's polyamorous as needing to make a descision and settle down, which is pretty disheartening to read as a polyam person.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Infidelity

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Abortion, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Rape

oneroundpanda's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

A book that pops emotional pain points you never knew you had and releases tension you didn't know you were holding

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault