Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott

14 reviews

littlecat's review

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.75

Its not a style I read a lot of books in (personal essays) which was interesting, it has a distinct own style and I like the humor in it despite the heavy topics. I felt like I read at least part of the essays before but that may just because I read other things about the topics before, definitly interesting.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Racism, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, and Rape

linkamarisa's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Hate crime, Mental illness, and Racism

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Police brutality, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual violence

sarah984's review

challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

5.0

This is a series of autobiographical essays about dehumanization and the intersections of misogyny, poverty, mental illness and racism in the US and Canada. I really enjoyed the way the author would pull in disparate elements (the history of dark matter, a Susan Sontag essay about photography) to illustrate wider points, and most of the essays were beautiful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Religious bigotry

whatannikareads's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

This collection of essays shows how Native identity intersects with various other hardships that the Canadian/American governments have bestowed upon non-white and lower class people: mental illness, child services, lack of acknowledgement of the genocides of Native and Black people.

I really enjoyed this collection! I think Alicia's writing style is really accessible and almost conversational; she walks us through various aspects of her upbringing and how it relates to a broader commentary on being Native in modern North America. My favorite aspects where when she highlighted how many Native women have been killed and left, as if people still have this "hunting Indians" complex they want to fulfill. Unfortunately, I hadn't heard of these unjustified murders—to no surprise to anyone.

Her essay on sexual assault touched me so, so deeply and I could write an essay on how it made me feel. I hope she knows how much that essay meant to me as someone who's been SA'd (trigger warning, btw).

There were some essays that were just fine but I overall enjoyed it and learned a lot, so I'm giving Alicia her flowers. She reframed how I look at a few things (see: essay on photographs). Read more Indigenous authors! This is a great place to start.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Miscarriage, Hate crime, Gun violence, Genocide, Death, Alcoholism, and Addiction