Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

67 reviews

emilyharmonica's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Infidelity, Alcohol, Excrement, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Cancer, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Grief, Drug use, and Abortion

waybeyondblue's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, Death, and Cancer

Moderate: Medical content, Pregnancy, and Racism

Minor: Excrement and Car accident

emfield's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Death of parent, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, and Cancer

Minor: Addiction, Car accident, Abortion, Suicidal thoughts, and Excrement

uhohzmia's review

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

i really love how the emphasis was on food and how it related to michelle’s relationship with her mom, even if they had some differences. although i’m not korean i still identified with the story closely being a child of immigrant parents growing up in a western environment.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Terminal illness

Moderate: Death of parent, Excrement, and Vomit

bethsreading's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

This is a gorgeously written and heartbreaking memoir exploring the depths of family, grief, and trying to exist as yourself. Truly beautiful. 

(I do not give star ratings for memoirs) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical trauma, Grief, Vomit, Cancer, Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Medical content

Moderate: Mental illness, Infidelity, Excrement, Abortion, and Racism

bookworm_haley's review

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Death of parent, Excrement, Chronic illness, and Death

emma_b_rhodes's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

So beautifully written at times but very slow moving. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Cancer, and Grief

Minor: Abortion

raelong12's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Vomit, Cancer, and Death of parent

Moderate: Excrement, Alcoholism, Medical content, and Panic attacks/disorders

ashley_turch's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Not for the faint of heart

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Cancer, Child abuse, Death of parent, Medical content, Death, and Vomit

Moderate: Excrement, Abortion, Alcoholism, Car accident, and Racism

Minor: Animal death

Very heavy and graphic descriptions of parental terminal illness and death. Only animal death is a short description of a squirrel dying

toastyghosty13's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

I went into this book having heard that it was about the experiences (both good and bad) of an American woman of half Korean half White descent. I expected this to be more about the racial injustices thrown her way or how she had to deal with finding her identity and sense of belonging while navigating being "too white to be korean, or too korean to be white". Although I would have been interested in reading the former, I was very surprised at what this book fully encompassed.  This book is a love letter to a very strict parent that wanted the best for their child, even if their relationship was destroyed while raising them. 

The only mistake I made in opening this book was to choose to read it while visiting my parents during Thanksgiving break; it made me even more sentimental and concerned for their health and well being. While I do not condone some of the rhetoric between Michelle and her mother, Michelle loved her mother and this book made me be more aware of the love I constantly have for my parents no matter what. 

Michelle's relationship with her mother was tumultuous while growing up.

They were constantly getting into fights about school, and how she wished her mother was more "motherly"; an example of which she compared to how her mother once yelled at her for climbing a tree and then falling off, then berating her because she scraped herself in the process. Eventually, their relationship was torn apart around the time of Michelle being in high school, where she nearly failed out of school and had admitted to wanting to write music instead of attending college. Her mother let her live on her own to try out the "starving artist" lifestyle while barely out of high school. They even got into a physical fight, where her mother told her she got an abortion so she wouldn't have another child because Michelle was so rotten. Michelle eventually got into a college on the other side of the country, Bryn Mawr, and moved to the east coast. This gave them the breathing room they desperately needed.

Michelle eventually found out that her mother had

found cancerous (or similar enough to cancerous) tumors in her stomach. This changed the dynamic of their relationship immediately. The majority of this book revolves around the love she feels for her mother, and how she did everything she could to help take care of her and make the last years of her life happy and filled with joy and experiences before her death. They went on trips to Korea, cooked together, watched k-dramas and tv shows pirated from the local asian grocery mart. Michelle did the best that she could to give her mother as happy of an ending as possible.

This book is a love letter to her mother, but also a critical analysis of her father.

She acknowledges that her father could have done so much more for her and her mother. He had a rough upbringing due to his fathers active combat PTSD, and had a history of addiction. He also cheated on his wife long before she grew sick, with Michelle discovering on their original family computer ads and correspondences for escorts for hire. Her father had a problem with driving under the influence consistently, and even totaled his car at the end of the book. He unfairly put a lot of his emotional weight onto Michelle with her mothers passing, when they should have been leaning on each other equally.

Between all of this, Michelle does recount her experiences of trying to find a place of belonging, although not as majorly as the content on her parents. She discusses feeling like an outside in different communities because she is too far from the norm for any of them, "too korean or too white". It was heartbreaking to read about how she was very alone in a lot of this until her adult years where she forged meaningful relationships with bandmates and her significant other, Peter. It made me so so happy that Peter was as supportive as he was. He hung in there through all of Michelle taking care of her mother, and their life choices like school and jobs plunging them into long distance. I did long distance with my now fiance for years, it was incredibly difficult but worth it in the end. It seems to have worked out for Michelle and Peter as well, since they got married right before her mothers death so that she could attend the wedding.

The ending of this book had a nice turn around where Michelle talks about her success in later years. Her music has granted her some limelight, and she even starts touring internationally. This book comes to a close following her tour and how the last show is in Korea near some relatives. She is able to go there and it almost feels as if she has some closure, being able to live her dreams creating music and spending time with those she loves. 

This book is beautifully written. It will make you ugly cry and put you in a horrible mood the entire time but it is completely worth it. It reminds you of how the relationships with the ones you love most, whether they are blood family or found, are the most important thing even through some of the hardships (obviously not all hardships). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Cancer, Death, and Medical content

Moderate: Drug abuse, Car accident, Racism, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Drug use, and Infidelity

Minor: Abortion, Vomit, and Excrement