Reviews

How to Cook Your Daughter: A Memoir by Jessica Hendra

soliteyah's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Harrowing to read at times. Tony Hendra was a shameless narcissist. His daughter's story is powerful, especially the scene where words from her dad's essay about cooking your daughter are interspersed with what happened to her. Disgusting.

youreadtoomuch's review against another edition

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4.0

It's unsettling and so honest it hurts being able to understand what love can allow people to tolerate, forgive, and not question even when we know it's wrong. This is the first memoir I've ever read and the narration is crucial to learning from Jessica first-hand her experiences.

evierose05's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

4.0

whosbradpitt's review against another edition

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2.0

I read this book for a summer reading challenge: read a book with son(s), daughter(s), or child(ren) in the title.

I picked this up for $1 at a used book bin on campus years ago and I'm glad I didn't pay much more. It wasn't a bad book - it just wasn't really all that good either.

It didn't drag. I can give it that. The book kept a decent pace, and I was interested to see how Jessica made out. The style of coming back to present day a few times during the book was interesting, though it didn't necessarily add much in terms of suspense or anything.

I picked it up expecting just another memoir. It pretty much was, aside from celebrity name-dropping, which I really don't care about at all.

Nothing special, nothing aggravating, nothing memorable at all. It was just... fine.

nathanshuherk's review against another edition

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4.0

I haven‰ЫЄt read much in the way of ‰ЫПsurvivor memoirs‰Ыќ and didn‰ЫЄt know what this book was when I found it in a sale. It‰ЫЄs a compelling story, but the writing can be a little stale. I‰ЫЄm interested in reading more in this genre.

vmp5062's review against another edition

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4.0

This book can be hard to read. Any story where the trust of a child is taken advantage of to the extent it is in this book is hard to read. This writing duo does a good job of looking at the consequences of horrendous actions as they cause anyoung girl to spiral.
Walking away from this it really feels that Jessica is too kind, though her conflicted feelings are apparent from the first word to the last.
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