Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon

85 reviews

cradman's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

I Will remember: the brutal truth Laymon lays out. They say to write the hardest thing, the truthiest truth, and boy did he. The honesty doesn’t exactly indict, even though it’s written to his mom. Instead, readers are rendered mute. There’s nothing to argue with here. It’s all true.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Violence, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Self harm, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Racism, and Sexual violence

ems888's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Racism

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, and Body shaming

Minor: Police brutality

rlgreen91's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

This was a hard read.  True and necessary but yet so so hard.  I often found myself taking breaks, reading whole other books - including Wild Seed, which is its own kind of hard - because this was, as the title says, Heavy.

But as I said, this was necessary.  The political is personal and the personal is political.  The political and policy decisions we make has repercussions years, decades, centuries later.  So much of the pain we deal with as a society is the consequences of deliberate political and policy decisions made by forebearers and ancestors.  So much of the pain we deal with in our personal lives are the consequences of decisions made in response to those political and policy decisions.  Simultaneously, we are the forebearers and ancestors making the political and policy decisions and decisions in response to that that will cause pain for others in the future.  It all becomes this overwhelming, never-ending maze of hurt in many ways.

How do we start to heal on a personal and societal level?  Hell, how do we just get it to stop hurting, at least?  I agree with Laymon that that requires a level of honesty and vulnerability that many of us, myself included, struggle to engage with or refuse to contemplate.

This was a hard but necessary read - a memoir I will surely revisit but at least a good number of years from now.  Maybe then I'll have a better idea of how to answer my questions.  Until then - basking in Black abundance. 4.5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Addiction, Child abuse, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual violence

marena02's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Bullying, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Islamophobia, Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Addiction, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Vomit, Violence, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

mattyvreads's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This is, without a doubt, my favorite book that I have read this year. I devoured it. Immensely captivating, unwaveringly poignant. An actual masterpiece.

It is a courageous exploration of Layson’s personal navigation through addiction, discrimination, physical and emotional abuse, eating disorders, mental health, grief — all underscored and interwoven with the racial and gendered perspective of his lived experience. 

The book is incredibly accessible, offering not just a baseline understanding of issues on racism and feminism, but through personal stories, working the reader up to examples of intersectional discrimination, examples of misogynior, and examples of a complex relationship with the human body. He offers critique of the elitism and inherent racism of major universities.

But, somehow, the book is not “preachy” whatsoever. (And even if it was, I’d still be here for the ride.) It’s tender, it’s emotional, it’s personal in a way that says: “this is my experience. This was my friend’s experience. This was my mom’s experience.” It’s incontestably honest and indefatigably moving. 

I can’t stop thinking about this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Child abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, and Racism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Hate crime, and Rape

Minor: Misogyny

rachelschloneger's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective relaxing medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Racism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Drug abuse

kshertz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

It’s really difficult to write a story like this. This is America and this is his life. I was really emotional throughout this entire book because it was incredibly touching and difficult to see what he had gone through. It was also incredibly important to see that he is representative of a larger group of people. He is a truly gifted writer too and I found myself crying a few times which has not happened in a book in a while.  This book definitely lives up to the hype and everyone should read it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Dysphoria, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Drug abuse, Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Drug use, and Fatphobia

sferrari925's review against another edition

dark reflective sad fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Sexual assault, and Racism

bootsmom3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Classism, Cursing, Racism, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Fatphobia, Sexual violence, Violence, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Infidelity, and Medical content

Minor: Dementia

michelle_my_belle's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual content