Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki

As someone who has struggled with mental health, reading Sehee's own struggle and her personal thoughts throughout her appointments was as deeply triggering as it was deeply freeing. I felt extremely seen by this book. I saw, what I consider, the worst parts of myself in her. I was shocked to hear that I have never had an original/singular experience 😅 I am truly, and honestly, not alone.

I can't say that this was particularly an enjoyable read for me. While I felt very much seen, and represented, like I mentioned it was somewhat triggering for me. Sehee isn't incredibly likable but she is incredibly raw. She doesn't hold back from being an unlikable narrator, her thoughts are not always good and filled with a desire to do better. Sometimes mental health is ugly. Healing is ugly. The way to being better is ugly.

I believe that this is a great book for those who want a deeply personal look at mental health, mental health in women, and the road to improving (whatever that looks like).

Please read the tws though before reading!

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risten's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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mangofraiche's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

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booksjessreads's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective fast-paced

3.0

I was never really bothered about reading this book, but then it came in as a new book for my library and didn't have a queue of holds, so I took my chance and read it. Because of my previous apathy for the book, I didn't really go into this with any expectations, and I did come out of this book having an appreciation for the authors experience, as well as prompting my own self-reflection. I also do enjoy translated fiction, especially when written by women. This did give a good insight into the impact of Korean society on women's mental health.

I think this was a really easy-to-read memoir and it was very fast paced, which concerned me in areas that it was so quick to get through, despite the heavy subject matter. I appreciated that each chapter was not just dialogue between the psychiatrist and the author and was broken up with an introduction and an analysis of the conversation afterwards.

Despite this though, I did also feel the memoir to be quite average. Not that this book is supposed to be astounding, groundbreaking, or full of fancy prose. However, if it hadn't been so easy to read, I would have just DNF'ed. It also just felt very samey to a lot of the mental health memoirs and fiction that is already out there. There is supposed to be a second book coming out next year, but I feel like this is better as a stand-alone, and it certainly didn't grip me enough to want to read the second one.

Overall, an average memoir, but I would suggest it as a good read for those new to translated fiction with regards to Korean society and mental health.

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thebookguru's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

Interesting and relatable and hopeful book!

Defo recommend to anyone struggling with mental health issues or you have a mental illness or if you just want to find out more about mental health and what it is like living with certain illnesses.

Haven’t read a memoir in a long time but glad I managed to finish this!

Also, the title of this book is perfect 😹👏🏽

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cibani's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

3.5

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superstar_y2k's review against another edition

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slow-paced

2.0

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