Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Finding Me by Viola Davis

6 reviews

youmns's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.75

Oof. Viola Davis is one tough lady. This whole book should come with a giant trigger warning.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

mathenam's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

This story is inspiring and heartbreaking and difficult to process. 

Memoirs seem to always have a narrative that skips around, but that’s the nature of telling a story about a real life. It still felt a little too disjointed in places.
Also the story about the man who killed the cat in front of them and chased her sister around town felt unbelievable to me

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

melanieripple's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional inspiring reflective

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

taibreakfast's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Just so freaking good. Viola Davis shares her journey of finding self-love, as well as her journey of growing up, becoming an actress, finding love, and healing. Read by the author, what other encouragement is needed?!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

coreyarch9's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.5

"Every January, we had our Martin Luther King celebration, a variety show [...] it was our rebellion. We were told it would ruin our instrument. Well, our soul was our instrument, too."

I love Annalise MF Keating, but I didn't know too much about Viola Davis. In Finding Me, Viola talks less about her career as an actress and more about the systemic poverty and racism and the coinciding internalized struggles that she had to overcome to be the woman we know today. And she doesn't hold anything back.

She talks a lot about what society deems beautiful, worthy, or correct. During her time at Juiliard, students were discouraged from hosting an MLK Day program or anything that might highlight their differences from their white counterparts. She talks about the typecast roles that she would be cast in or invited to audition for. She talks about what it was like to be called beautiful for the first time. She talks about therapy. 

In the end, she talks about finding herself, writing, "I am no longer ashamed of me."

I will never know firsthand what it's like to experience the abject poverty and racism that Viola grew up with. And that's why it's so important to read about. When she talked about being called beautiful for the first time, I started to wonder, when was the last time I told somebody they were pretty? When was the last time I told a woman of color that she was beautiful? When was the last time I supported a black-owned café instead of just picking up a latte at my local Tim Hortons? When did I last show kindness to a stranger?

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

minibean24's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

Viola’s story is incredible, and her memoir is beautifully written and painfully raw. I felt like I could feel her hurt. Her narration in the audiobook is fantastic- it made all the important people in her life absolutely come to life. **Please pay attention to the content warnings, as some she discusses in detail and are quite hard to hear about, even if they are not a trigger!**

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...