Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot

85 reviews

vainnerj's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

4.0

A beautiful and ephemeral look into the intersection of race, culture, gender and mental health. The author has a certain way with words that takes you on a ride that you cannot predict the ending of. I know that the author states towards the end that she had initially envisioned this as a fictional story based on her own experiences, but I am glad she was willing to be so raw and open as to tell her story without that separation. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Mental illness, Child abuse, and Drug use

blakeandbooks's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Self harm, Pregnancy, and Sexual content

lexiefolkerts's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

4.0

I did not know anything about this book before starting and after reading a few pages I feared I wouldn’t like it because it seemed too distant from my reality. I was wrong. Although I haven’t lived the same life as Terese or endured the same traumas, there were so many ways in which I connected to her story. This book had so many good quotes to pull from that I felt drawn to and raised emotion out of me. I would recommend this book to anyone that’s had an imperfect romantic relationship with a man. This book also delved into childhood trauma, childhood SA, grief, bipolar, suicidal thoughts, love, and heart break. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Death of parent

fink1129's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Grief, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Incest, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

readingbrb's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Mental illness

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Child abuse

Minor: Eating disorder, Abortion, and Alcohol

sillysausagezj's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Racism, Sexual violence, Addiction, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Minor: Abortion

mayaism_01's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

This was gut punch, after gut punch, after gut punch. I feel like I’ve been shattered into a million little pieces and I will never recover from this. I don’t think I’ve ever been possessed with so much anger while reading a book. I loved this so much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Vomit, Eating disorder, and Abortion

stevia333k's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

3.5

usually I consider Adrienne Rich references to be an immediate DNF & didn't do so this time because it was only cited as an inspiration at the very end. In fact, the blurb my library gave in retrospect is basically trying to spin the Andrienne Rich influence -- that being said, besides some squicks, it was decent.

So this is by an author who wanted to challenge expectations about works written by indigenous authors. (I didn't pick up on how besides various marketable narratives -- i mean this in the way that both karl marx & the austrian school of economics are considered "controversial".)

Anyways, I read the book on the basis of family building & decolonization. The part about forgiveness being done in ceremonies instead of the white idea of "letting go", especially since I've struggled with that colonial dynamic too, except as a white settler I didn't have established ceremonies for context.

Admittedly I was kind of indifferent to the poetics I guess. The intersections were interesting enough.

in the interview at the end, there's 2 notes about influences on this book that the author mentions that explained the squicks I had with this book: 
- the bible (which went over my head because I'm not a Christian), 
- and Adrienne Rich (I already returned my copy of this book to the library & it was an audiobook, but the way the word "man" was used felt heteronormative & that "patriarchal" could've worked better. Like I think I figured it out via like argument from analogy with like settler vs indigenous & the fact she's mainly talking about 1 man in particular, but the lack of precision felt suspicious to me, and it turned out I was right.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Alcohol, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Incest, Infidelity, Ableism, Addiction, Medical content, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

spicycheesecake's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

Such a beautiful book. The writing is amazing, and the story being told is so captivating. I was immediately pulled in from the first page, and felt emotional the whole ride through.

There are many things I could not relate with, but I understood everything, and I felt like I was there -- spectating, watching, experiencing.

I've learned about myself and my own relationships just from seeing the perspectives in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Drug use, Death of parent, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Torture, Suicide attempt, Grief, Death, Violence, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Self harm, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, and Cursing

Moderate: Abortion

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

This book has won many awards for a reasons! Poetic and lyrical reflections filled with love, heartbreak, toxic relationships, darkness and the harsh realities of Teresa’s life as a Salish woman. I’ve never read a memoir quite like this one, that is written almost in prose, using beautiful language to portray such dark themes. This book might only be about 130 pages, but her story was so dense, that each sentence made me stop and reflect.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Self harm

Minor: Pregnancy