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Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed
23 reviews
absolutely_court's review against another edition
5.0
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
siobhanward's review against another edition
3.0
I'll be entirely honest - I started off thinking this was going to be an awful read. I don't read a lot of advice columns (any to be honest), so I'm not sure the usual style. I really wasn't sure how to feel when Strayed went on a tangent about her work as a youth advocate while responding to someone who had suffered a stillbirth - I get giving context, but it felt like hijacking the response to talk about herself. It also felt at times like things were just over simplified - do this one small thing and everything will be fixed.
However, the book got so much stronger at the end. The response about the future being uncertain and her mother buying a dress for a grandchild she never met struck me. The story about Brandon and the angry boys had me weeping. Strayed's advice to herself in her twenties was raw and real. I just wish every answer in the book had been as great as those ones, because Strayed has great advice and great style - it's just not always consistent.
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Toxic friendship, Addiction, and Alcohol
bootsmom3's review against another edition
3.0
Moderate: Dysphoria, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Child death, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Sexual content, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Terminal illness
hubes's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Sexual assault and Child death
Moderate: Death of parent and Emotional abuse
novella42's review
5.0
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.
"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."
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
questingnotcoasting's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Violence, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Death, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, and Suicidal thoughts
iamnita's review against another edition
5.0
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
smoladeryn's review against another edition
5.0
Content Warning: abuse
I don’t read “self help” I thought as I grabbed this from a shelf on the way out of my beautiful home that I didn’t want to leave. I was fleeing an abusive relationship of 16 years when this book jumped out at me—no doubt given by his mother that he never read—like so many books of this kind.
I don’t know why I took it. I hadn’t been able to read much in 8 years-- the second half of our relationship. I also really didn’t read “self help” or even memoirs. I never read Sugar’s column, although I did read TheRumpus, I didn’t know that’s where it came from at the time.
I saw the ugly orange cover, read the title that seemed so overwrought (honestly), and picked it up in my already much too full hands with my cat and as many “important” possessions as I could take.
I was terrified that day and I was terrified for weeks, months still. I was homeless for 2 months, but not the kind of homelessness I experienced in my early 20s. It was the kind where I had to stay in a horror story air bnb, a hotel, and then a dank and noisy basement I paid way too much for.
In each place I unpacked this book and put it next to where I slept. I didn’t read it. When I got to my noisy and deeply lonely new rental apartment in the heart of downtown, I put it next to my pillow and didn’t read it.
One day about 4 months into this “new life”, after the homeless period, I started reading it.
I’ve wept at nearly every letter. Before I started reading this collection, that no doubt my ex-mother-in-law gave to her stubborn and abusive son that refuses to look inward, she picked a fight with me. The details aren’t important, but she said some of the most hurtful and painful things anyone has ever said, even more so than my own horribly abusive family.
I don’t know if I finally read this out of stubbornness (spite?) myself but all I know is Tiny Beautiful Things is the thing that started my healing. I’m still healing.
There were times I didn’t read this book, and times I devoured 3 letters at once. There were times I had to process a letter for what seemed like an eternity before I could bare to pick up the weight of it again. Then, there were times where this book sat in a bag on my back, light as a feather, and as warm as a familiar friend.
Tiny Beautiful Things is one of those Things itself. The phrase comes from the description of a sweet purple balloon. It might not be the sweet balloon Sugar describes, but there are times where it is. And she is right—it is something we all deserve.
I kept a journal of endless quotes. I was going to post them as a review which is what I usually do, but those quotes are important mostly to me, probably.
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Addiction, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content
Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Infertility, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Cancer, Cursing, Dementia, Violence, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
becksusername's review
5.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
roncanread's review
5.0
i picked up this book a few months ago but then life happened and then i started a series instead and after awhile completely forgot about it. then the other night i downloaded the audiobook and drove around my city while listening to it and laughed and cried and smiled. i had picked this book back up at such a specific time in my life it almost felt unreal. i truly enjoyed this read.
Minor: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Addiction, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, and Miscarriage