Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot

12 reviews

carnimdream's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Addiction, Alcohol, Child abuse, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, and Violence

Minor: Abortion and Chronic illness

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

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Terminal illness, Rape, Incest, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Animal death, Cancer, Murder, Self harm, Death, and Drug use

Residential schools, illnesses, rehab, divorce, foster home, teen marriage, child services, neglect, postpartum depression.

seeceeread's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad

💭 "Séliš stories are a lot like its art: sparse and interested in blank space; the work must be striking."

This is a torrent. Relentless, stream-of-conscious nonsequiturs circle back to each other. The book is a menacing bath of tales:

assault and need and love and violence and therapy and mothering and child separation and tenderness and despair and and and

. Mailhot seems to want to purge the hurt, to exorcise her uncertainty by naming: she has felt, craved, demanded, retreated. 

I winced to witness, to relive so intimately all that has sliced her.

The author nicks as she tells us of the small ladder she carved into her arm while pregnant.

Like her girlhood self, we are coaxed and cornered into small spaces with the grotesque, wondering if it's safe to speak, to look away. I wanted to hold her at times, a quiet listener as an irregular heartbeat sang of heartache. At others, I wanted to run away, to commit violence against her selfish lover and to snap her into nonchalance. These whiplashes of emotion and intention mirror hers, further evidence she submerged me.

💭 "The tips of your fingers felt like wet grapes. I wanted to bite every one."

Expect to be nipped.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Violence, Abandonment, Classism, Colonisation, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide, and Child abuse

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Classism

dakotahreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abortion, Death of parent, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Incest, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

mlewis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Pregnancy, Vomit, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Sexual violence, Abandonment, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

Minor: Colonisation and Sexual content

rebeccaloosli's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

Stunning and powerful voice. Her story made my heart ache. I loved her brutal and raw honesty with herself and audience. The way she told her story was provocative and the language was beautifully spare - every sentence was purposeful and powerful. The trauma in this book is hard to read but handled so well by Mailhot’s masterful writing and insight. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Infidelity

Moderate: Death of parent, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, and Child abuse

bookswithbri's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, and Mental illness

Minor: Child abuse, Racism, Abortion, and Self harm

atsundarsingh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

This was so, so hard to read. It was incredibly poetic, but also one of the rawest things I have ever read, and so painful. This is so intimate and personal, I almost can't believe the author shared all of this. Mailhot is so inspiring, and so intense. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Grief, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Violence

memorable's review

challenging emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Unfortunately, I didn’t fully understand everything in this book; however, it is a strong memoir that presents a lot of resilience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Genocide, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, and Pedophilia