Scan barcode
_annika__'s review against another edition
3.75
The issue I have with this book is personal, but perhaps relatable to anyone from a small town - I almost had to put the book down because I couldn’t stand the author continuously calling Eugene, Oregon (second biggest city in the state, a major PAC12 college town, an hour away from Portland) small, boring, and dull. Almost every single person I’ve met that’s lived in a <10,000 person town (and bigger, honestly) would KILL to be in Eugene. If the author would have said “I hated growing up in Eugene” I could’ve moved on, but she seemed to hate it specifically because it’s “small” and because there was “nothing to do.”
Every kid that’s suffered growing up in a 3,000 person town in the middle of a corn field somewhere in the Midwest - where 99.99% of the population is white and so strictly religious they unironically call Halloween “the devil’s holiday” and avoid you like the plague if you don’t go to their same church (imagine if you don’t go to church at all, and they repeatedly egg your house for it) - would have likely cut off a finger or two to grow up in Eugene or anywhere near it. I’m hoping the author bemoaned her adolescence in such a “small town” for dramatic effect and that she didn’t actually feel that strongly about it.
I understand teenage angst and depression and would have been more understanding if that was the main reason for feeling the way she did growing up, since most teens experience those feelings and at least at the time, likely no matter where you live, we feel like we don’t belong and we hate it there. But the amount of those feelings that she blamed specifically on the “small dull Pacific Northwest town” she lived in personally made my eye twitch. Growing up in a larger, modern, and progressive college town (often rated one of the most progressive cities in the entire U.S.) would be a privilege to sooo many.
Since the reader knows she’s writing this post-adolescence I was waiting for her to correct how she felt about this small town with “nothing to do” (aside from going to record stores, go vintage clothes shopping, get specialty Korean ingredients from a local market, and see Modest Mouse - just to name a few). Again, I acknowledge this as a personal issue taken with the book, but I assume most people that grew up in rural or small towns would struggle and also feel that a large part of the author’s adolescence and story is unreachable and I relatable because of this as well.
Graphic: Cancer, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Terminal illness, Car accident, Death, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Alcohol, Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Infidelity, Abortion, Addiction, and Alcoholism
mattyvreads's review
4.75
The story is heartbreaking and gorgeous. It is raw.
I enjoyed it immensely.
Graphic: Death of parent, Racism, Cancer, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Medical trauma, Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Car accident, Drug abuse, Misogyny, and Rape
booksanna's review
5.0
Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, and Death of parent
Moderate: Body shaming and Bullying
Minor: Abortion, Car accident, Violence, Infidelity, Medical content, and Alcohol
pabi's review
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Bullying, Cancer, Grief, Alcohol, Medical content, Mental illness, Alcoholism, and Blood
ximevillarejo's review
5.0
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Car accident, Death of parent, Grief, and Terminal illness
mmalone's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Medical content, Bullying, Cancer, Body shaming, Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, and Car accident
scmiller's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Body shaming, Cancer, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Body horror, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Vomit
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Abortion, Bullying, Car accident, Drug use, Racism, Addiction, Drug abuse, Excrement, Fatphobia, and Mental illness
Minor: Infidelity and Religious bigotry
aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Medical content, Terminal illness, Grief, Cancer, and Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Racism, and Alcohol
wickedgrumpy's review against another edition
2.5
It was alright. I teared up a few times. The descriptions of food were verbose and evocative, sometimes excessively so. I love Maangchi.
This is a story of grief and mourning, of finding your identity and how it changes as you grow, relationships and connections.
Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Alcohol, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Death, Excrement, and Fatphobia
Minor: Abortion, Body shaming, Drug use, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Car accident, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Eating disorder, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Sexism
bookishkale's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Terminal illness, Cancer, Medical content, Mental illness, Grief, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Blood, Chronic illness, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Mental illness
Minor: Abortion, Racism, and Bullying