Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Inferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness by Catherine Cho

8 reviews

ratchel_l's review

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Domestic abuse, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and Medical trauma

ehmannky's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

A really raw look at Cho's experience having postpartum psychosis, the depressing state of America's mental health institutions and just how dehumanized patients with psychosis are in the United States, and a look at her life up until her psychosis. It's really good, but Cho really describes her psychosis and it's hard to read. Additionally, she experienced abuse as a child and by a previous partner (her husband as of this book seems like a really great guy), and she describes both pretty thoroughly. A good read, but it is heavy.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

maxthefish's review

emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Child abuse

quinnjuliac's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

You know how some memoirs are not good books, they’re just written by someone with a good story to tell? That is not this book. This is an amazing and gripping account of postpartum psychosis, past trauma from physical and emotional abuse, parenthood, and the love between the author and her husband. It was challenging for me to read as someone who has had someone close to me spend time in inpatient mental health facilities. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Child abuse

sarahlovesbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Pregnancy

Minor: Child death

bookiecharm's review

emotional reflective tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, and Domestic abuse

angelicgay's review

dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child abuse, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

clarafoster's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

5.0

Most often, finishing a really great book leaves you with a sense of deep satisfaction; a good book with pleasure but slight relief at having powered through those last 15 pages. Occasionally a book will leave you with a deep wave of sadness, because upon finishing it you know that you may not come across a book so exquisitely crafted for several more years. This was one such book.

Cho's Inferno reads like the very best kind of literary fiction, made all the more extraordinary for the fact that it's real. The memoir starts inside a psych ward,  language stark and methodical, and then shimmers into something rich and resonant as she pieces together different bits of timeline that brought her to where she is now, life and legend overlapping and fusing in ways that shouldn't work but do. [Shoutout, at this point, to whomever made the creative decision to leave chapter headings blank and a fair chunk of pages unnumbered--making the experience of reading look and feel as much like a puzzle as the content itself]. Cho weaves Korean legends, history, and cultural mores throughout the narrative, entwining them expertly with literary references from the western canon and Greek mythology, whilst never losing sight of the (at times terrifyingly) real life she has led or her expert insight into the precise mannerisms and outlooks of those around her. It's a difficult story, but ultimately it's a hopeful and a human one too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Child abuse