Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Finding Me

🧠 My thoughts
This has to be one of the best memoirs I have ever read. It was concise, powerful, moving, and inspirational. Viola Davis is such a humble and strong woman. I consider myself a rags-to-riches person but Viola’s situation was another world that I felt even fictional sometimes, and that opened my eyes. I could never imagined the pain she had to go through. When asked how she overcame poverty, she just humbly said it was mostly luck. No, I disagreed, it was all about her strength, her willingness to improve her situation, her talent, and so on.

I believe regardless of your race, your skin color, or your background, you deserve to be loved. Living in a world of men sexualizing women, especially white men, I feel so bad for women of color and ashamed of those men. Regardless of that, Viola keeps moving forward and shows the world that she deserves to be loved and desired through her roles in movies. I know that an actress is talented and is a real actress when I see this:

“Every character you play forces you to explore your brokenness” – Viola Davis

Viola is and will always be a good example of a strong-willed and independent successful woman. When told that her husband has changed her life for good, she said it was true but it was her who changed her own life. I couldn’t agree more than this. Your partner could help you to find yourself and get better, but it’s you who take action and it’s only you who can change your own life.

👍 What I like

Raw, moving, and inspirational life story
Totally makes me speechless from time to time
Pretty clear writing style

👎 What I don't like

Maybe in some chapters, it was a bit hard to follow because the ideas jumped from one to another abruptly

Content Warnings

bettymer91's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Content Warnings

oxfordcommas91's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

This memoir blew me away. I listened to it on audiobook and listening to Viola Davis narrate the story of her life was powerful beyond belief. Her story is at once heartbreaking and inspiring - she persevered through nearly impossible odds to be the famous Hollywood A lister she is today.
The majority of her memoir takes place in her formative, early years - first, as a highly impoverished child who is bullied relentlessly for both being black and poor, then as a teen and young adult who was still both black and poor but learning about her true passion and chasing it fervently.
While parts of this book were incredibly difficult to listen to (please do note the content warnings on this book and take them seriously - it dives deep into some very traumatic topics like sexual abuse, domestic violence, and losing a parent to cancer), it somehow remained hopeful. Davis’s story was woven with expertise as she shared her thoughtful reflections on these different points in her life and how she arrived to where she is now. This book gives a true, honest account that doesn’t turn away from difficult topics like racism in the film and acting industry. It forces the reader (or listener) to confront difficult truths about how even at the height of her career, Davis herself still felt like an outsider, forced to take the “fun best friend” roles and not the leading lady roles, reserved for her lighter skinned counterparts.
I laughed, I cried, and am so grateful to Viola for sharing her life with the world.

Content Warnings