Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot

23 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

akmatz's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

3.25

I don't know if this style is for me. The prose is incredible, and the story, anger, and honesty are important. But the brutal honesty and lack of a sense of Terese as a person almost reads to me as dehumanizing. The substance of the book is difficult, but the voice is uncomfortable.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Violence, Child abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Abortion, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Incest

Minor: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Eating disorder

lureads2's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

3.5

Beautiful writing, important insights into indigeneity, native womanhood, trauma, and motherhood; but while the book is marketed as an exploration of the author's bipolar disorder and PTSD, the book ended up focusing mainly on the author's many fraught relationships with dissappointing men, which was frustrating to read about. Further, the author's criticisms of the mental health system were often shallow and trite, and fell flat for me. Nonetheless, this book holds stark and devastating revelations about what it means to be an indigenous woman, the experience of trauma and PTSD, the joys and horrors of grappling with Indigenous identity and with motherhood; so overall this is an important and well written book, as long as you are ready to explore these themes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Grief, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Child abuse

aprilhinkle's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad tense slow-paced

3.75

Painful but important. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Addiction, and Violence

mayaism_01's review

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

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

honeyvoiced's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Mental illness, Eating disorder, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Sexual harassment, and Pregnancy

Minor: Rape and Violence

clarabooksit's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Pregnancy, Eating disorder, Child abuse, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual violence, Alcohol, Colonisation, Grief, and Alcoholism

ashleycmms's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, and Mental illness

Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Suicide

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