Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

9 reviews

jalexpulliamkepler's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

4.0

Interesting and often moving but sometimes felt more like a series of essays than a memoir

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Child abuse, Classism, Sexism, Pedophilia, Rape, Physical abuse, Racism, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and War

ed_moore's review against another edition

informative inspiring fast-paced

3.0

Maya Angelou’s ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ is a memoir of her time facing racism, sexism and questions of her sexuality as a child and teenager. It is also difficult to review a memoir as it is almost as if I am reviewing and praising or criticising another’s life and experiences, though am still inclined to come to some conclusion on such. It follows her and her brother Bailey navigating childhood in the Deep South of America before returning to their parents in the North. 

 

This potion of her life was illuminating, turbulent and interesting though I struggled to entirety engage with the book, though narrated by Angelou herself with so much passion, both memoirs aren’t my typical genre and the book felt really fragmented. I am still unsure if this may be because I could’ve listened to an abridged version, though am not even sure wether it was abridged or not as I have found nothing to say otherwise though my audiobook recording felt really short. Abridged or otherwise, Angelou’s decision to split her autobiography across 7 books, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ only being the first, it still lacked any satisfying closure and just seemed to end without warning, not even setting itself up for the second book. 

 

Each fragmented event was interesting and held literary merit in itself, but as a chronology they really didn’t work for me and just felt tacked together with no particular rhyme nor reason. I will also highlight that there are highly detailed scenes of SA that occur in Angelou’s life and therefore autobiography, it is handled well illuminating to see the shifting emotions as Angelou grappled with understanding her victimisation, but still worth being aware of if undertaking this book. It was certainly interesting, whereas I don’t think the first part (and most praised) was enough to persuade me to undertaking the vast number of further parts in Angelou’s collection of memoirs. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, and Sexual content

Minor: Car accident

brynalexa's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

It’s hard to give a poet anything but five stars on their autobiography. I can’t imagine having such a strong memory of my formative years after going through so many transitions and traumas. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Abandonment, Medical content, Sexual content, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, and Murder

Moderate: Slavery, Lesbophobia, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, War, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Abortion, Addiction, and Alcohol

ritte_e's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Classism, Misogyny, Bullying, Grief, Medical content, Body shaming, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, and Slavery

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.75

Difficult to read, but in the way that it challenges how you think about things.

In particular this made me consider the times it took place during, the "good ole days" and how shitty they were for a lot people.  I make it a habit to not read much about a book before I pick it up to give everything a fair chance and the reason why I picked those one up was because I saw it on a list of commonly banned books.  While it contains some mature(-ish) content, it is much tamer than many things I read as a youth and the value of showing other-ing on a personal degree is unmatched.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Abandonment, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Genocide, Grief, Blood, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Violence, Sexual violence, and War

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Hate crime, Abandonment, Rape, Pedophilia, Racism, Racial slurs, Gore, Grief, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Car accident

A very thoughtful, caring, emotional memoir with exquisite prose, but mind the warnings. The way she describes being SA’d as a child is extremely graphic, disturbing, and heartbreaking. I am grateful for her honesty and bravery telling exactly how all the victims of such a horror have to walk a tightrope of expectations, and how adults often make it harder for a child to tell anyone if they are harmed. Best part is how much love overflows in the pages for everything dear to her. Maya Angelou is a wonderful soul.

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Rape, Violence, Racism, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Body shaming, Ableism, Sexism, Grief, Mental illness, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Medical content, and Child abuse

Minor: Child death, Bullying, War, Infidelity, Car accident, Police brutality, Torture, Slavery, Infertility, Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Drug use, and Classism

Poverty, WWII, concentration camps, Japanese displacement, homelessness, d slur.

sunny_not's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

3.0

Although it was hard to read due to the heavy topics it deals with. The chapters weren't super connected with each other either so it felt like it was incomplete at some parts. However it's still a very important read. I wish that this was a long memoir rather than a book series of memoirs tho, since I wanted to read more of this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Misogyny, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual violence, Racism, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, and Blood

ha1yan's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Rape, and Death

Moderate: Medical content and Hate crime

Minor: Blood