Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don't by Lane Moore

4 reviews

ranocchietto's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Biphobia, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

joepyeweed's review

reflective medium-paced

1.0

Why do I keep finishing completely intolerable books…?

I was expecting a book about coping with loneliness, or a critique of the “you must be in a relationship” culture, but instead it was a memoir by a person that sounds incredibly self-centered and mean, with a conversational tone that was totally intolerable, obnoxious, and self-deprecating in the worst way. It had the vibe of a person who thinks they’re really self-aware, but actually aren’t. SO much of this book was whining about “why can’t every person I ever encounter READ MY MIND and know what I need without my needing to tell them?!!” I get that they had a rough childhood and that sucks. Same. And it sucks that they don’t have friends. But also, they’re mean about every single person they encounter. So I didn’t end the book with much sympathy for them at all.

Also soooo heteronormative (despite the fact that the author is queer) and unbelievably amatonormative. Romantic love is not the only kind of love, Lane. Jeez.

And finally, the “conclusions” about how great it is to be alone, which they throw in at the end, do not derive at all from the two hundred pages of pity party that precede them.

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

elizalavenza's review

challenging emotional funny reflective slow-paced

1.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Biphobia, Bullying, and Mental illness

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, and Confinement

anniefwrites's review

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

I have mixed feelings about this book--there are so many things I loved, and others that weren't for me as a matter of personal preference. I really like Lane Moore as an Internet Person; she's funny, vulnerable, multi-talented, and truly sparkles. I saw her read at the Brooklyn Book Festival one year, and she was so effervescent that I had to put this book on my TBR. Her voice on the page completely captured her essence. There were quite a few truth-bombs that resonated with me a lot, and her openness in sharing all of her emotional and experiential dirty laundry was very brave. I think sometimes the comedic tone gave me some secondhand stress; for me, I think I prefer memoirs with difficult subject matter to read a bit more removed and have more of a narrative structure than a series of conversational essays. But that's just my preference. I think anyone with a difficult family and/or romantic past would feel seen by this book, and that really seems to be the main purpose. Glad I gave this a read.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Biphobia, and Bullying

Minor: Classism, Confinement, Drug use, and Adult/minor relationship