Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - The Benefits of Being an Octopus

God, this book. The first half-hour had me almost in tears. A powerful, compassionate look at childhood poverty, emotional abuse, school bullying, and finding your voice.

Content Warnings

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This is such a super good book to introduce the really hard issues of classism and gun control and domestic violence. It's so beautifully written, and my heart really hurt for Zoey, who was dealing with so so much when her job should have been just to get through middle school. I'd absolutely read Ms. Braden again, and I'd definitely buy this book for the young folks in my life.

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stephmcnutt28's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I have never connected to a book so much. This was an exact snippet of my own childhood and having someone else describe the exact thoughts in my own head at that age was something I never knew I needed. I never expected to connect to a middle grade book at 32 years old, but here I am. This book is proof for me that you’re never to old to read middle grade or YA and find connection in it. I highly recommend.

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redhothabanero's review against another edition

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reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a good book that makes you think about kids and how there's so much more to them that what it seems. Some parts were really sad and hard to listen to but the fact is that this is happening in our society.

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corriejn's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

I think this could have been a better middle-grades book, but it tried to do a bit too much.

The main character is a middle school girl in a Vermont, growing up in poverty; her family had previously been homeless at times, she and her siblings have 3 different fathers (the first 2 not in the picture) and are living with her mom's current boyfriend/the father of the youngest sibling, who is very controlling but emotionally abusive but provides a somewhat more financially stable living situation. That could be the core of the story-- the stresses of growing up in poverty, how she is treated by classmates, the strain of having to put up with bad living situations due to financial limits. But there are all these additional themes that the author tried to toss in as well, but of course didn't have space to deal with any of them well: hunting and gun rights debates, police brutality against Black Americans (via a token black classmate whose sole contribution to the story is to occasionally voice concerns related to being Black), foster care, alcoholism, school shootings/lockdowns, whether it's ok for boys to cry, and the treatment of the school "loner" to whom other kids assign sinister intentions. Whew. Oh and another threatening a child with violence. Throw in a fairly flat character of a teacher who takes interest in the main character (for pretty unclear reasons, the student reminds the teacher of herself) and takes her under her wing, offering pithy advice that it's unclear how the main character actually applies. Oh and don't forget the mom's gay work friend, whom her boyfriend hates with a passion for unknown reasons (the main character speculates that she isn't sure if it's because that friend is gay, or some other reason).

It ends up being a bit of a grab-bag of "real life hard topics" while not doing justice to most of them.

Content Warnings

bandysbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I didn’t realize this was a Middle Grade book when I first picked up the audiobook through the library, but it became pretty clear pretty quickly. The narration is simple and though it does cover some deep topics, it does them in the way a child would understand.

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