Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman

12 reviews

mmefish's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

It could be a 5 but I wanted to know more about how she actually left, how she was fighting for her son, how her family members reacted. Plus I did not appreciate the few misogynistic remarks the author decided to include for whatever reason.

Content Warnings

fuguballoon's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

3.5

I read this book after watching the Netflix miniseries. I thought I had a handle on this book, but then I read the afterword (in a later edition of the book) where the author explained that she was motivated to write the book in order to get custody of her son in her divorce. It did change my feelings about the story a little bit. Not because that wasn't a totally fair reason, but I think because the descriptions of the steps she took to get out felt a little less intentional during my first read, whereas the afterword made it clear that there was a lot of planning behind the events described in the second half of the book. I think that speaks to how, even though there was a lot of descriptive detail in the book's events, I didn't feel like I understood the author as a person very well until I read the afterword, where she opened up a bit more about her frame of mind at the time. Overall, I definitely found the book engaging and emotional, and it was interesting seeing where the adaptation was based in fact versus fictionalized.

Content Warnings

madeleinebay's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Content Warnings

lbird's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

This very personal account of growing up as a woman in an Ultra-Orthodox community and feeling restrained by its strict rules of is a moving memoir. It explores her experience of Judaism being used as an instrument of control and shame throughout her childhood and early 20s. While I would have liked for some of her other family to members have been more developed and for her written description of her father’s disabilities to develop as she became older in the memoir, her voice is clear. It is a story of female liberation and gaining the confidence to stand up for yourself.

Content Warnings