Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott

5 reviews

ivi_reads_books's review

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

isabeldotml's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Addiction, Alcohol, and Forced institutionalization

voidboi's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

These essays give you lots to think about, have great writing, and generously share the author's personal history and emotional work to make meaning from difficult parts of her life. The final essay asks you to do the same, providing questions with blank spots for the reader to reflect on and "share", and it is quite powerful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer

biancafrancisco's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Through a very personal narrative - using herself, her family and her nation as examples - the author touches upon more themes than I can mention, connecting bridges between a myriad of crucial societal issues, always leading back to the macro vision of the effect of capitalism, colonialism and the action of the state on people, while simultaneously making us keep checking our prejudices.

The book teaches you a lot about the issues indigenous communities and individuals struggle with (most that were imposed on them by colonizers), and how not only they are still dealing with and trying to heal from the very real and tangibly present damage this legacy of colonialism and genocide has transfered through generations, but are simultaneously dealing with modern versions of the same violence nowadays. 

I was surprised to see, that through the connections she makes between several systemic structures, there was much for me to relate to as well. I'm an immensely priviledged white european, but I'm still a woman, I'm still a daughter, I'm still bound by the constraints of capitalism and the patriarchy as well as witness to intergenerational trauma, to mention a few, and, in the end, you can't accurately assess any structural issue without it intertwining with the others.

All in all, I recommend it to literally everyone, as I think there's learning opportunities in this book for all of us. I'm extremely glad I picked it up. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Sexism, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Xenophobia

laurendenton's review

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Grief, Pregnancy, and Racism