Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land

6 reviews

parcoeur's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Classism

Moderate: Mental illness and Medical trauma

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

God was this good and impactful. Just a really clear look at how poverty looks in this godforsaken country, and how you can't "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" if the system is set up to make sure that you can't move forward. And Ms. Land didn't even have systemic racism working against her! Just. incredible and so important.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Car accident, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Abortion, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

miggyfool's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Suicide, Abandonment, and Alcohol

redefiningrachel's review

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Car accident, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, Excrement, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

kshertz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional fast-paced

3.75

I actually watched the TV show first so everything was so exaggerated in there, this book was less dramatic. But it was still a harrowing, interesting story that we should all look at and take note of. This is a person that suffered greatly, even with white privilege. Imagine those that have stories even worse with no support and ability to tell their story. I’m grateful for this book so I can keep that in mind and look out for my community. I hope those that are living in their own bubble will take a chance, read this book, and see how much we need to come together and look out for each other. An important read. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

indreni's review against another edition

challenging sad slow-paced

4.25

This book made me feel all sorts of emotions. Examining my emotional responses to various things in the book was very insightful and I feel like I learned from it.

Fundamentally, of course, this book is about how we do low-wage work in this country combined with government assistance. How there is a lack of natural safety nets for so many people, and the safety nets there are involved incredibly time-consuming, tangled processes to obtain and maintain them.

But there are other themes in this book that speak to issues that are even more insidious. For example, our medical system and the trauma it can cause mothers. Having parents that don't support you growing up and how that affects your early adulthood. Judgment against people who are working low-wage jobs and/or in poverty and on government assistance. Misogyny and emotional/verbal abuse in bad relationships.

It's not a crime to be poor and yet many times poor people are just often treated that way for no reason. It's not the fault of low-wage workers if their jobs don't pay enough to survive and afford even modest housing and food for their families. Rather, as the book indicates, it's almost deliberate that some employers pay artificially low wages with the expectation that their employees will cover the rest with government assistance programs 

Then sometimes when a worker gets ahead and gets a raise of even a few dollars, that could put them over the income threshold for their government assistance and they lose hundreds of dollars in benefits. This sort of problem is a disadvantage and needs to be fixed in our system.

Another thing that really made me think in the book was the author's point about her middle class clients. Oftentimes they seem to be relying on antidepressants and had a host of health problems and seemed no more happy than she was, even if slightly more economically comfortable. She talked about how the incredible cost and effort it takes to maintain at least the facade of a middle-class lifestyle in this country can also be toxic for people.

Basically, this was not just a book about poverty or single motherhood, although it was primarily about those things. It was a commentary on our economic system in general, and the disadvantages young people face when they don't have supportive family.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse

Minor: Medical trauma