Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Black and Blue: A Memoir of Racism and Resilience by Veronica Gorrie

10 reviews

carlytenille's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident, Death, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Racism, Violence, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Physical abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Police brutality, and Racial slurs

stanro's review against another edition

5.0

Appropriately on Invasion Day today (26 January 2023), I’ve just finished Black and Blue - A Memoir of Racism and Resilience by Veronica Gorrie

Cautionary note - many potentially triggering episodes are in the book and some are mentioned below. Spoilers too. 

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This is a very tough book, occasionally leavened with humour. The predatory pedophilia she experiences and tells of others also suffering, is truly shocking. So is hearing about she and her siblings being on suicide watch for their alcoholic mother. 

What a fractured family life! Her parents split up. She is forced to move many times. She and her siblings are split between their parents. And she is raped as a young teen. 

Her family members experience alcoholism and its violent consequences. The story of her Aunty Dot’s brutal assault by her boyfriend is particularly shocking. 

Stories of her sister’s repeated escapes from a violent partner are very sobering. 

Then there is the kidnapping of her younger children by their father!

And she became a police officer in Queensland. She is proud to have achieved this and was a commended officer. Though she refers to frequent racist comments by her fellow officers- aimed at her specifically and “just casual” racism or aimed at others. 

She primarily focuses on the challenges presented by her role - dealing with murders and suicides and mayhem from car accidents. Also the pressures of shift work. There is some sardonic humour., but repeatedly, racism - around her and at her.  

The pressures of this work told on her personal relationships. “Policing fucked me up, big time,” she says late in the book as she talks of her post-retirement reflections on her ten-year career in the force. 

Over all, the book is painful, brutal, and too real. This is a story of great resilience following great trauma. 

A thought about resilience. It’s not necessarily a return to pre-injury full health. Nor is it a “happily ever after” sort of thing. What Gorrie’s memoir shows us is the strength she has whilst dealing with such trauma, trauma that reverberates daily. 

She finally reflects at some depth about her mother’s explicit and directly targeted racism. How painful!

Yet, in the last six weeks of her mother’s life, her anger shifted and Gorrie obtains her own reconciliation with her. 

As I read, I find myself thinking that I don’t know how she did it. And then, I do. “I may have had a dysfunctional life, but I was always loved and cared for by my father.”

Finally, she concludes with her thoughts on abolition of police forces, youth detention centres and prisons.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, and Racism

Moderate: Racism

wetdirtreads's review against another edition

challenging fast-paced

4.5

I read this book in one sitting, heaving, blubbering, and bawling through most of it. There are a couple of reasons for this – both the speed-reading and the sobbing.
 
Black and Blue was impossible to put down, first and foremost, because of phenomenal storytelling. The language was clear, concise, and accessible, making the book so easy and pleasant to glide through, even though the subject matter was gruelling. The chapters were short and digestible, but also often ended on cliff-hangers – so it would’ve been easy for me to pause wherever without getting overwhelmed, but I also couldn’t bring myself to stop. And I didn’t want to.
 
Ronnie’s storytelling reads just like a mob yarn. It’s accessible to, but very clearly not written for a non-Blak audience. Ronnie doesn’t waste time coddling the white reader, nor trying to define the incommensurable. Her delivery is direct and unapologetic, with no concern for whether you ‘get’ it – those who do will, and those who won’t aren’t her responsibility to hand-hold.
 
The other reason I sped through Black and Blue was because of the subject matter. While Ronnie never dwells on horrific scenes for the sake of shock value, speaking her reality necessitates discussion of deeply distressing experiences. I knew that this book would be incredibly triggering for me, so I read it in a day partly to look after myself – to minimise how long I spent in a trauma response state.
 
You might be wondering why I chose to read a book that I knew would activate a trauma response for me. And it's because I knew that Ronnie's truth-telling would also be equally as healing. I often cried during this book as gruesome details of violence were recounted. But I also bawled my eyes out when Ronnie perfectly articulated mob experiences I'd never been able to put into words before. And because she generously taught me so much about experiences I'll never personally know. And because I was overwhelmed by the gratitude I felt for being permitted to read her story.

l've had some mob ask me if I think Black and Blue would be okay for them to read. Unfortunately, I cannot answer this question. I can only recommend reading up on the trigger warnings before going into it, assessing whether thev're personally manageable for you, and proceeding with great care and caution. But what I can definitively tell you is that, for me, reading Black and Blue made me feel held as much as hurt.

(Review initially posted on instagram)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Car accident, Drug use, Police brutality, Rape, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Colonisation, Grief, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Blood, Kidnapping, Terminal illness, and Classism

Minor: Islamophobia, Cancer, Infidelity, Torture, Antisemitism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Murder

lucyr21's review

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, Child death, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Racism, Domestic abuse, and Police brutality

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Stalking, Addiction, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexism

Minor: Dementia

katiiekhaos's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

This is an incredibly important memoir for all white Australians to read and really reflect on. I am in total awe at the resilience, compassion, empathy and honesty Veronica showed through this memoir, although it may not come across as overtly emotional I can still see how she has chosen to share her heart with us while also protecting herself and others from being retraumatised. I felt like I was already fairly well educated on the issues within the Australian police, however seeing how bad it is even on the inside for First Nations people was even more disappointing and frustrating. And although Veronica talks about how it shouldn’t be on the shoulder of Aboriginal people to educate whites, this book definitely has the power to do that and for that I am so thankful for her selflessness in sharing her stories. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Violence, Alcoholism, Police brutality, and Racism

demo's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Rape, Toxic relationship, Racism, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Child death, Mental illness, and Suicide

Moderate: Pedophilia, Death, and Grief

Minor: Dementia, Car accident, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Cancer, and Drug use

tlaynejones's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

4.75

This was so good. Gorrie is a Gunai-Kurnai and Gunditjamara woman, who writes of growing up as an Aboriginal child with her white mother and Aboriginal father. She then goes on to describe how as an adult and parent herself she joined the police force, as a way to support her family and in the hope of bridging the gap between her people and the police. She writes in a way that makes it hard to put the book down. It’s quite a fast moving story, filled with challenges, profound trauma, and so much love. 
I wish every Australian would read this brave, compassionate story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Alcoholism, and Child abuse

Minor: Child death

tamzen's review

informative sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

clio's review

challenging emotional medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Police brutality, and Domestic abuse

georgiarybanks's review

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Car accident, Child death, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, and Racial slurs