Reviews tagging 'Murder'

A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott

9 reviews

ivi_reads_books's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

This book is a good mix of memoir and history and stats on indigenous people in Canada and the US. The author describes growing up with a bipolar mother in precarious environments and how their suroundings influenced their behavior.
The author doesn't tell the reader what to do or think. She rather observes what happens and what doesn't happen. What gets said and what doesn't and thus encourages readers to self-reflect on their own behavior

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Abandonment, Addiction, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Violence, Death, Deportation, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Vomit, Alcoholism, Cultural appropriation, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Police brutality

jcstokes95's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

 

A difficult read throughout, there wasn’t a single essay that didn’t leave me chewing on it after. I think all essay collections are hoping to be called “thought-provoking” and this one earns that description in spades. While I found myself resistant to some of Elliot’s arguments and do believe there are a few structural issues with how she builds her essays, I am still turning over everything I’ve learned in these pieces. 

Elliot is at her best when melding her own stories throughout an essay; she invites us into her own hardest moments to see how the systemic affected her family before zooming out. A particular standout to me was “On Forbidden Rooms and Intentional Forgetting” which investigates how we demand survivors of violence perform their pain for us to take them seriously. This is perfectly crafted, taking her own story (or the pieces she feels she can share) before weaving in examples from history and current events to put the reader in an uncomfortable position…one where they must consider how much they dig into others darkest moments before we give them compassion. I think the brilliance of this piece speaks to how well these essays can work when they are tightly wound. 

I struggled with some of the longer pieces; I often found myself disagreeing with Elliot…or, if not disagreeing, questioning how she had gotten to her conclusion. A lot of the time it feels like she speak from what she “feels” to be true, rather than backing her thought process up. She rarely gives space to opinions that do not match her own, which is frustrating, because as the reader I am asking questions that she doesn’t beat back on. I am okay finding myself not agreeing with an author, but am more frustrated to not see her seriously outline critique. For example, in the piece responding to Sontag (which was my least favorite) she states that “maybe there is no ethical way to ethically photograph pain”. She gives little time to discussing how impartial photojournalism has turned the world toward empathy at important moments. I would venture she may disagree with that idea, but I’d at least like her to contend with it in this piece. This sort of blind eye gets turned in a few of her essays; I would be curious to see if her approach changes in a second book. 

All in all, I recommend this collection if you like to feel challenged and don’t mind feeling like you want to argue out the small stuff with the author. I would say that a good essay collection should make you question the author, even if you are standing on the same side of the fence with them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Rape, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

aqtbenz's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Colonisation, and Child abuse

kchin's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

Her voice is strong, writing is clear and brilliant. Everyone needs to read this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Police brutality, Murder, Genocide, Sexism, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Racism, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Hate crime, and Colonisation

eve81's review

challenging funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Addiction, Child death, Transphobia, Pregnancy, Murder, Domestic abuse, Rape, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Misogyny

remimicha's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Alcoholism, Classism, Police brutality, Body shaming, Child abuse, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Murder, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Violence, Cultural appropriation, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Transphobia, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Suicide, Gun violence, Homophobia, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Cancer, and Death

raelin's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

What a great book. 

This book covers so many categories, since each chapter is written almost as a stand alone essay then grouped together to make one book that does tie every chapter together into a cohesive work. It is masterfully done. 

All people represented in this work are dimensional humans, with several different facets. Her mother isn’t just a bipolar religious fanatic. Her father isn’t just an alcoholic abuser. They are also caring, loving, supportive parents. This is how real people are, but not often how people are captured in the written word. The beautiful contradictions that fill our relationships with people are so accurately described. 

This book is so much more than memoir. It is also history, inspires self reflection (by directly asking the reader to answer hard questions about their perspective), insight into the writing process, commentary on social media, self persecution, and so much more. 

A definite must read for everyone that can handle the content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual assault, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Murder, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Alcoholism, and Domestic abuse

benevolentelfking's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Eating disorder

Minor: Pregnancy

stephskees's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship