Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Know My Name by Chanel Miller

70 reviews

denden's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Mass/school shootings, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death, Suicide, and Vomit

Minor: Bullying

nothingforpomegranted's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.5

This is a powerful, brave book, an unbelievable reflection by Chanel Miller on the story of her sexual assault and the months and years that followed. Not yet internationally known as Emily Doe, Chanel Miller joined her younger sister and a friend at a frat party at Stanford University in January 2015. Drunk and happy, Chanel danced on a chair and went outside to pee. Hours later, she woke up in a hospital, confused in a room full of medical professionals who wouldn't let her go to the bathroom because they would need a urine sample. Slowly, Chanel realized that she might have been the victim of sexual assault, found behind a dumpster by two Swedish men on bicycles who stopped and chased a man (whose name I'm not interested in mentioning in this review) from on top of her when it was clear to them that she was not responding. 

Harrowing and rife with detail, Chanel Miller's account of her own story, covering the years between the party, the trial, the sentencing, and the end of her assailant's prison term, is heartbreaking and beautifully told. Her narration of the audiobook added an unbelievable depth to the story, and the moments where her voice betrayed the emotional impact of her own words were incredibly significant. 

I was disappointed towards the end of the book when Miller suddenly brought tangentially relevant incidents of societal injustice that were contemporaneous with her own case and legal battle. I was so deeply invested in her story, and this section pulled me out of it somewhat. Though her analysis of Trump's disturbing statements was powerful, as she picked apart his words piece by piece to connect them to her own experience and trauma, the pivot to police violence felt disconnected and incomplete. I also got a bit disoriented with the timeline at certain points, but only briefly and was quickly drawn back into the story. 

After all, Chanel's story is an engrossing one. Her strength and resilience was evident on every page (or the audio equivalent), and I am filled with utter admiration for the way she pursued art and comedy, the way she sought to comfort and protect her little sister, and the way she stood up for herself in the trial, breaking down in tears more than once as she was forced to experience the trauma of this assault over and over again, but refusing to succumb to the defense attorney's leading questions or attempts to make her out as a slutty, silly, unfaithful party girl who must have wanted to be fingered behind a dumpster by a freshman swimmer while her boyfriend was in Philadelphia at school. 

Chanel's fury and frustration was resonant throughout her memoir, and I felt it right along with her, but I was most struck by the overwhelming sense of hope that infused her writing. As an aspirational children's book author, Miller seems to know how to hit just the right note, balancing painful, difficult topics and emotions with a way forward. She acknowledges the statistics of sexual assault, the mountain that victims and survivors have to survey, navigate, and ascend before charges can even be brought to court, and the low likelihood of a guilty verdict after all that. She affirms the utter disbelief that overtook the world after her assailant--found guilty by unanimous verdict on three felony charges of assault--was sentenced to only six months in prison, likely to be released after three months on good behavior. Yet, she encourages her readers (and women everywhere) to remember that they are not alone, that they have an opportunity to "dust [themselves] off and go on," as she has started to do, and to keep looking forward. 

Graphic, painful, and gripping, this is a book that many will struggle to read. I think it's worth it. Even a few paragraphs at a time (or a few paragraphs altogether), Chanel Miller has a lot to say, and both anonymously and named, she should be heard. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, and Suicide

yameli's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma

pagesofquinn's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Vomit

penofpossibilities's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Xenophobia, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Confinement and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Drug use, Homophobia, Blood, and Acephobia/Arophobia

Graphic: victim blaming, ptsd/trauma Minor: fireworks

skudiklier's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This book is powerful, beautifully written, and both validating and infuriating. I had to stop reading at times because I was so angry, and of course it made me cry (though not as much as I would have anticipated, honestly). I got to listen to Chanel Miller read the book out loud, and I'm so glad I did. She reads it more slowly than I would have read a physical copy, and I'm grateful for spending the extra time sitting with this book and what happens in it. It made me realize things about some loved ones that I'd never considered before, and it made me realize things about myself, too. I'd recommend this book to anyone (and also recommend you follow @chanel_miller on Instagram because her comics are funny and inspirational and I just love the things she creates).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Body shaming, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Vomit, and Grief

joice's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.25

This book was incredibly well-written and incredibly important, and I'll be recommending it to anyone who's looking for a new read. Chanel made it really easy to understand her experience and her pain, while expressing it through her beautiful prose. She gives the reader her full story, and you get such a good sense of her character and background that it feels like getting to know a friend. 

However, as other reviews have mentioned, a lot of the last quarter of the book felt redundant, which is why I rated the book as I did. (I may have felt this a little more due to the fact that I was listening to the audiobook and finished it within a week.) Nonetheless, a must-read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Vomit

peeniewallie's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Minor: Vomit and Police brutality

sofiaxaguilar's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Minor: Mass/school shootings

natcalibooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, and Medical trauma