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jess_mango's review
3.0
3.5 Stars for this graphic novel memoir. It's very introspective and meta. For a good portion of this book she writes about the process of writing this book.
tildahlia's review
4.0
This book landed at a particularly good useful time for me, as I was in the midst of examining my own relationship with my mother. The book, I think, is less about her mother (who remains aloof and enigmatic to the end) but more about Alison's journey to understand herself as distinct from her mother's influence and expectations. The book has a strong emphasis on therapy (with lots of wisdom and leads to follow, as she cites from various thinkers and psychotherapists) and gives a pretty unsparing view into the unglamorous labour of self-reflection and improvement. I loved it but understand why people like Fun Home more.
kdahlo's review
3.0
Maybe I feel about this book a bit like what I felt about "The Natural Mother of the Child." That is, both books track too closely to my own worst impulses of autobiography: self-indulgent, melancholy. But, after a while, I made my peace with the tone and started to enjoy it. It was interesting to read in the context of early parenthood. You can wonder what your kids will say in therapy about you!
hmetwade's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
2.75
graveyardpansy's review
4.0
3.5 — i like both her other memoirs better. but this is def still enjoyable !
i don’t think this would make sense if i hadn’t already read fun home, and the added context of having read both the collected DTWOF and also bechdel’s newest book also helped. unfortunately i am not a psychoanalysis fan.
i don’t think this would make sense if i hadn’t already read fun home, and the added context of having read both the collected DTWOF and also bechdel’s newest book also helped. unfortunately i am not a psychoanalysis fan.
parallel_parker's review
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
2.5
Feels like an anxiety spiral at points. Fascinating how she weaves these disparate influences together but def feels too obtuse at times. Also the quote integration didn’t feel very creative
katieinca's review
3.0
Well researched, well written, challenging, honest. As a work, I think it's at least a 4. But I liked it a 3.