Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton

9 reviews

clarabooksit's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Mental illness, Sexism, Rape, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Classism

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Racism, Stalking, and Suicide

meghanreads00's review against another edition

funny informative sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug use, Death, Bullying, Alcoholism, and Addiction

ratstronomer's review against another edition

emotional sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Kate Beaton’s sequential storytelling is reflective and moving. I learned a lot about the Canadian oil sands and the people who work there in search of financial hope like herself. Nothing is ever black and white and I think Kate illustrates that reality beautifully. Everyone who works in the sands is changed, even Kate.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Rape, Racial slurs, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Car accident and Suicide

vixenreader's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

The great Canadian graphic novel, it is an exploration of what people will put up with when they need to take care of themselves, and how others will take advantage of those because of their lack of resources. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Cursing, Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual assault, Misogyny, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Colonisation, Racism, Drug use, Drug abuse, Animal death, Bullying, Alcohol, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, and Xenophobia

Minor: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, and Ableism

Be aware that the novel does explore workplace abuse, hardship, and harassment. If you got out of a bad job, please read with care.

daisyrain98's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Cried, wasn’t what I thought it was gonna be about but it’s real and it’s heavy. Loved the art and was interested in learning about this work culture I would have in no other way looked into myself.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Car accident, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Rape, Misogyny, Sexism, Body shaming, Bullying, Addiction, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

traa's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Stalking, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Infidelity

Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Car accident, Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Colonisation, Cursing, Drug use, and Gaslighting

Minor: Blood, Body horror, Fatphobia, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Cancer, and Excrement

jlye's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

3.25

This is hard to rate without sounding super judgmental because it is a very personal, vulnerable account of Kate Beaton’s time spent in the oil sands. I grew up in Newfoundland and graduated from university the same year as Beaton. I too felt bitter that I worked so hard for a degree that couldn’t get me a job. The job market was shit and every fresh graduate was underemployed and saddled with debt. However, there were options other than the oil sands to make money and pay down student loans quickly. A lot of people with arts degrees went overseas to teach English and were back home within two or three years debt-free. Everyone had heard horror stories of camp life, sexual harassment, cocaine, injury and death at Fort Mac. I was surprised by Beaton’s naivety about life in the camps and her decision to go there. Teaching overseas paid well and it was a job that didn’t result in losing your soul or compromising your ethics. I know this sounds judgmental, but I guess I just I have a hard time understanding why a woman with a liberal arts degree would choose such a difficult path.

What I appreciated the most from the book were the perspectives of the people who were in the oil sands because they truly had few other opportunities. The people who were displaced after the mines and fisheries were shut down out East. They had families to support and many only had a grade school education or no education. Unlike Kate Beaton, those guys were there because they had to be. Those guys were there for the long haul, contrasted starkly with Beaton’s youth and what we know will be a bright future ahead. 

I am disappointed that the book dedicated only a few frames to the impact the oil sands has had on Indigenous communities. The epilogue mentions that sexual abuse targeted towards Indigenous women is even worse in Fort Mac and at the camps.  This book is receiving so much National attention, and I get this is a memoir focused on a white woman’s experience in the oil sands, but Indigenous voices on such important issues deserve more than a footnote.

“The almighty dollar comes first. At the cost of our lives - as long as they get their money”. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Stalking, Body shaming, Sexual harassment, Death, Misogyny, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, and Cursing

hmatt's review against another edition

dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

4.75

Very few notes. I wish there was a little bit more on her time in Victoria, that part felt more rushed than the rest.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexism

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Drug use, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Drug abuse and Mental illness

daniellekat's review

challenging emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

An incredibly powerful story told in an accessible way. The general content of this book was something very unfamiliar to me being someone from Toronto, but the author has done an amazing job of setting the scene and tone within the context of this memoir. I cannot recommend this book enough and I know I’ll be thinking about Ducks for a while. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexism, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Rape

Moderate: Drug use, Addiction, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Mental illness, Stalking, Animal death, and Colonisation