Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

57 reviews

teawithgriffon's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

Best book of this year. so moved. absolutely beautiful.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

rainerasnic's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Rape, Alcohol, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, and Sexual harassment

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

this was such a devastating memoir. i loved how the voice throughout most of the story aged as the story progressed. the beginning has such a child-like voice which adds to how you feel for the author and what she went through. this was a hard but rewarding read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Medical content, Grief, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Cursing, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Sexism, Bullying, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Racism, and Sexual assault

mini_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Violence, Rape, and Cursing

Moderate: Racism, Alcohol, Blood, Cancer, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Body shaming, and Car accident

thehmkane's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Child abuse, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Incest, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, and Racism

bettyemanee's review against another edition

dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

The Glass Castle is one of the best memoirs I've ever read. It made me laugh, cry, and angry beyond words. One thing I would've loved to see more of is Maureen. I feel that her transition from child to adult was glossed over very quickly and deserved more explanation and detail. Still a 5-star read, though! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Cursing, and Mental illness

Minor: Child death

_desreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

The Glass Castle is modern classic in the memoir genre, so not much intro is needed in the bookish world. Jeannette Walls relives her nomadic, broken, yet incredibly creative and endearing childhood. Centered around her father’s drinking habit and distrust for anything connected to the government and her mother’s need to be a creator and artist above all else, Jeannette and her three siblings travel across the country searching for a place to call home, yet always seem to find a reason to move on, usually without notice in the middle of the night. When they finally “settle” into a shack with no electricity or pumping in West Virginia, all of Jeannette’s experience with survival will be put to the test as her and her siblings try and not only find their next meal, but find a way out of this life. 

Walls writes a gripping and, at many moments heartbreaking, retelling of her childhood and how she eventually became a successful writer in New York City. If you want a grid for comparison, I think it is a mix of Nowhere Girl, Educated and Fierce Attachments. Not a light read but one that will linger in your heart and invite you to reflect on how varied our pasts can be to bring us into who we are today.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Addiction, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, and Drug use

okiecozyreader's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

4.0

The short chapters in this book kept me going; thank goodness they weren’t longer. So many difficulties and tragedies. I heard a teacher one time say that in relationships - junk attracts junk - it may be different kinds of junk, but the same amount. This was true in this book - two “parents” who had dreams who “taught” their kids ingenuity out of necessity. When their daughter “made” her own braces (ch 46) out of paper lips, her dad praised her workmanship. They go from run down slum to slum until they are usually kicked out or threatened by authority.

It is an amazing story of three of the children and it makes me wonder how they overcame it all - was it that they felt their parents loved them in some way? Or they had taught them enough to survive strange and awful circumstances?

I read this with the Zibby ambassadors bookclub, facilitated by Zibby author Michelle Wildgen, who did an amazing job!

Quotes -
Ch 5: When Dad wasn’t telling us about all the amazing things he had already done, he was telling us about the wondrous things he was going to do. Like build the Glass Castle. All of Dad’s engineering skills and mathematical genius were coming together in one special project: a great big house he was going to build for us in the desert.

Ch 8: “I wondered if all fire was related, like Dad said all humans were related, if the fire that had burned me that day while I cooked hot dogs was somehow connected to the fire I had flushed down the toilet and the fire burning at the hotel. I didn’t have the answers to those questions, but what I did know was that I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire.”

Ch 17: “Mom liked to encourage self-sufficiency in all living creatures.”

Ch 18: “Mom gave me a startled look. I’d broken one of our unspoken rules: We were always supposed to pretend our life was one long and incredibly fun adventure.”

Ch 42: “And you can get cold for a while, but you always warm up. Once you go on welfare, it changes you. Even if you get off welfare, you never escape the stigma that you were a charity case. You’re scarred for life.”
“Mom turned quiet. She seemed to be thinking. Then she looked up. She was smiling serenely. “I can’t leave your father,” she said. “It’s against the Catholic faith.” Then she sighed. “And anyway, you know your mom. I’m an excitement addict.””

Ch 47: “I began to feel like I was getting the whole story for the first time, that I was being handed the missing pieces to the puzzle, and the world was making a little more sense.”

Ch 56: “and sat around talking about Welch, laughing so hard at the idea of all that craziness that our eyes watered.”

Ch 58: “Mom said. “Being homeless is an adventure.”

Ch 66: “But Mom acted like her normal self—nonchalant in the face of adversity.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, and Mental illness

notartgarfunkel's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Mental illness, Child abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Death of parent

sapphicsoilscientist's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

0.25

Read this book in school and it should have come with a warning, so I'll be the one to give you a heads up. This book is about abusive parents who are more interested in chasing their 'dreams' than taking care of the children they have created. Be aware that the book contains child abuse, children going hungry, terrible living conditions, mental illness, drug abuse, and goodness knows what else- these were just things that stood out to me. While this is apparently a true story, going into this book unprepared is not a good idea for many readers.

Save yourself some time and go read Educated instead.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Mental illness, Child abuse, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Animal cruelty, and Car accident