Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing: Essays

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing: Essays by Lauren Hough

18 reviews

radiojupiter's review

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

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lily1304's review

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funny reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

Really good stories - instead of a collection of essays, this read like a memoir told out of order. Can be a little heavy handed, especially the last essay

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kelsie4's review

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dark sad tense medium-paced

2.75

I typically like books about hardships. For some reason the tone felt off. Despite the way she handles not getting a perfect review and really any criticism aside, I thought this book was fine. It’s an interesting perspective to read from as I’m sure most people might not have any experiences like these given the time all of this was happening. Learning how tough it really was for the LGBTQIA’s+ community breaks my heart and I’m proud of the somewhat progress we’ve made (though in this time that could all be reversed). I thought the stories were interesting but just came off with a tone of just straight up complaining and totally against having an optimistic out look in life. Book feels like a total bummer the entire timeline.

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avisreadsandreads's review

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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garbitchdisposal's review

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.5

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nika_reads's review

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

4.5

I found Lauren through her viral article about being a cable guy/blue collar worker with PTSD as a lesbian. When I learned that she got a book deal I immediately put it on my TBR list and it doesn't disappoint. Every essay is a brutally honest accounts of her life growing up in a cult, her integration into "real life" not once but twice, her experience and discharge from the air force after receiving death threats and being the victim of arson.

Hough does not paint herself as a victim or a martyr or someone who is now in a better place because she was able to make good decisions. She's honest about her shortcomings, which combined with the lack of resources and being trapped in systems that consistently make it impossible for her to reach a maintainable lifestyle leave her in vulnerable to most.

Is Hough someone I would want to hang out with? Probably not. But she's a good a writer with a very compelling story that examines the pitfalls of her own mental health and the systems of America.

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alyse's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

5.0

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quassibly's review

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challenging emotional fast-paced

5.0

Lauren Hough and I share almost nothing in background or experience, but her circular thought process with it's frequent digressions that seem unrelated until she brings it all back around to connect in a way that feels entirely organic.

Separately, her essays each impart in insight into the world at large, seen through the lens of Hough's experiences -- being told that she can only be good if she conforms to a standard, being hurt by people who tell her it's for her own good, and finding herself powerless in a world where poverty is the ultimate shame. Taken together, they tell the story of a woman who fighting to figure out how to create her own standards with only her anger and her wit to arm her.

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