Scan barcode
erinmayyxx's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
jroberts3456's review against another edition
5.0
Jackson’s two family memoirs are arguably her best work. Her talent lies in channeling the bemused exasperation of a wife and mother into pure comedy gold. Littering the stories with nuggets of detail that bring them to life, Raising Demons (and its predecessor, Life Among the Savages) reveals the bitter truths of motherhood and wifehood better than any modern “mommy writers” have yet to achieve.
aabha's review against another edition
4.0
This book brought me joy! Shirley Jackson writes with humor and wit about being a faculty wife and mother of four. A refrigerator plays a main role. A a group of tourists get invited over somehow. Her husband(dodgy fellow if you ask me) forgets to set the alarm clock. These are the kinds of everyday domestic crisis that are contained in this little book. And I don’t want to spoil this for anyone but she has really cute kids! She writes with love but never cheesy sentimentality.
jsl's review against another edition
5.0
Shirley Jackson may just be my favorite person. I've loved her novels and short stories, but somehow loved this even more.
melanie_page's review against another edition
5.0
Shirley Jackson’s second memoir, Raising Demons, continues when the family moves into a new house after they discover they have no more room in their current rental situation. The time period focuses mostly on when the children are ages 3, 6, 9, and 12. Much like Life Among the Savages, Jackson is able to use repetition and building intensity to strum my anxiety strings, even if she’s talking about something as simple as getting a new cat to catch mice in their house. The oldest boy continues to be horrible, condescendingly starting all sentences with “Loook” in the most East-coast accent and calling Shirley Jackson a “tippy old lady.” Sally (6), my favorite, is imaginative, takes up magic that her family is convinced actually works, and still rides upside down in the car. Another humorous, anxiety-inducing, possibly selective look into Shirley Jackson’s family life. For the same reasons as in my first review, I would have preferred Raising Demons as a physical copy.
vulveeta's review against another edition
4.0
i didn't enjoy this as much as life among the savages but there were still bits that made me laugh and i will forever love shirley jackson no matter what