Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

8 reviews

jadenchimes06's review

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emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

3.75


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ariana_danielle's review

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emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

Incredible story about a woman who despite her dysfunctional background, became a successful person.

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rebeccadiv's review

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

It's hard to say I liked this book because there was so much trauma and disappointment throughout. I found myself being disgusted and angry but I couldn't put it down. Jeannette's story is heartbreaking and inspiring.

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nebraskanwriter's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring fast-paced

5.0

What a powerful audiobook, read by the writer herself. Be prepared for basically every trigger warning in the book to happen in this one as these children lived a very hard life because of their parents. I cannot even fathom, after listening to this book, what that must have been like to grow up in. 

As other reviewers have said, Walls does look at her past with rose-tinted glasses and does not tear down her parents. She tells us what they did, said, didn’t do that they should have done and let’s us the reader feel the anger for her. Which I thought was very tasteful of her, given what all her parents have put her family through.

Definitely one of the most powerful memoirs I’ve ever read. How they were able to save up money, budget at such a young age and be more of a responsible adult then both their parents to make it in New York. The strength of her and her siblings is truly incredible. 

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narbine's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5


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sapphicsoilscientist's review

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dark slow-paced

0.25

Read this book in school and it should have come with a warning, so I'll be the one to give you a heads up. This book is about abusive parents who are more interested in chasing their 'dreams' than taking care of the children they have created. Be aware that the book contains child abuse, children going hungry, terrible living conditions, mental illness, drug abuse, and goodness knows what else- these were just things that stood out to me. While this is apparently a true story, going into this book unprepared is not a good idea for many readers.

Save yourself some time and go read Educated instead.

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rakizaka's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

4.0


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annemaries_shelves's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

One of my oldest TBR books and I'm so incredibly glad I finally picked this up. 

Walls has an incredibly rich talent for story-telling and displays immense vulnerability in sharing her family's story. 
Reading this 10 years after I first learned about it, I have more empathy for the parents and a better ability to understand the nuances and grey zones of parent-child relationships, the circumstances that lead to unstable, unsafe, and neglectful households, and the sheer luck it takes to dig yourself out of systemic poverty the way the Walls children did. 

That said, her parents are terrible parents in a lot of ways. You can tell they love their children and want to install certain values like independent thinking, self-reliance, and others. But this often comes at the cost of healthcare, safety, job and financial security, and others risks. While her parents clearly have some mental health issues and substance use disorders to varying degrees (though she doesn't speculate on this) a lot of the circumstances the Walls found themselves in were entirely preventable and manageable. And that infuriates me. 

I loved reading about the siblings' dynamics and their resourcefulness and determination to make the best of things - and get the hell out of Welch when they no longer could. I'd especially love to read Lori's story one day - she seems to have a unique experience within the family and I think it could resonate with a lot of people (or maybe it's just oldest children relatability for me).

I have two main critiques that could bring my rating down 0.5 stars (but won't because I loved the experience of reading this memoir to much).
1) The pacing was slightly off in the second half. Jeannette Walls devotes so much time to her early childhood, that we often skip significant portions of her teen years and young adulthood. She only discusses the highlights as compared to the substantial exploration of her childhood and set-up of their family dynamics. 
2) Being published in 2005 and set largely in the 60s and 70s there is some outdated language. This includes the R-word and racial slurs. 

Overall this is a wonderful and emotional memoir - I can understand why and how it's become a classic in the genre. 

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