Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

28 reviews

buttermellow's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Dementia, Abandonment, Body shaming, Child abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Physical abuse

kendal_reads's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Dementia

Minor: Abortion

sashawins's review

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

📚Book Review📚

Rate: 4.5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5

🎵songs for book

"I hate you so much right now" Kelis

" I want you " Ciara

"Giving you the best that I got" Anita Baker

" Rich spirit" Kendrick Lamar

📚 Quotes

" Mother's raise their daughters and love their sons."

" You can't save me, I am not in peril."

" Friendship is not the same as history, just as bone is not the same as marrow"

📚 Review

Packed full of short stories that left me in reflection mood. Dessha Philyaw as a way to pull you in viscerally to each story. I laughed out loud, I cringed, shook my head, and my heart ache for majority of the characters.

Discuss themes of childhood trauma, love, friendship, death & grief, fear, daughter & mother dynamics, male predators, sexuality, self love,  colorismand how the Black church can cause harm. 

📚Favorite Stories:

●" When Eddie Levart Comes"

●" Instructions for married Christian Husbands"

●" Eula"

●"Peach clobber"

●"Jael"

📚 When Eddie Levart Comes--

I want to focus on the quote, " Mother's raise daughters and love their sons" as seen in the story When Eddie Levart Comes, in this story --Daughter cares for her mom who has dementia.  She cares for her mom 24/7 even though there is unresolved issues. Daughter still seeks the love of her mother she never received as a child. She does her best caring for her mother's needs even though her mother doesn't recognize her. Her babt bother, Rico, though hardly there, is the apple of his mommas eye--she recognized him with no issues.

I truly felt sad for Daughter-- not only did she need a true vacatio from caregiver role, she needed therapy for this childhood traumas.

What I learned from this story is to speak and pure love into your children. Childhood trauma is real and have lasting effects in adulthood❤️.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Child abuse

clairew97's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Bullying, Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug use, Murder, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Child death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship

jodierose14's review

dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

abbyluvsfrogs444's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is such a stunning collection of short stories. I fell in love with all the characters. I adored the writing. I became absorbed in all the stories. I love this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Dementia, and Alcohol

cinderrunner's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book captures such a depth of emotional complexity and humanity. Its a wonderful read. The examination of living at the cross roads of personal freedom/truth and doing what is expected of you from your culture/the people around you is beautifully done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Infidelity

mraddd's review

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, and Death of parent

Minor: Drug abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism

kimveach's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This book is about sexual relationships, not just the kind most Christian churches would like you to have. The writing was excellent, and you got to know these characters despite the short stories.

The narration was good, but it could have benefitted from having more than one narrator. While I enjoyed listening to her, it felt like it was just one character telling all the stories, which is not the case.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Classism, Cursing, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, and Misogyny

readingwithtrey's review

challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

I’m going to start this review by saying this book will not be for everyone and that’s okay. If you’re not an open-minded reader, you may find yourself offended by some of the things in this book. 

Now to my review, in my humble opinion, this book is a work 👏🏽 of 👏🏽art👏🏽. While I didn’t have any personal shared experiences with each woman, I could appreciate the nods to the culture that I could completely relate to. They include: being in church every Sunday with our moms & grannies and often times aunts, uncles, and cousins. (I was related to almost everyone in the small, country church I attended growing up.) Our grannies always telling us that they’re praying for us (and knowing for certain they actually were) and usually having a feast ready for us whenever we visited. Spending summers outside all day almost every day with our cousins without a care in the world. Getting a new beautiful frilly dress from my grandma each Easter. This book made me nostalgic for that time and made that ache that I still have to see both of my grandmas one more time feel as new as the days that they left us.

There is so much to this book than what’s on the surface level. & I highly recommend it for readers with open hearts and minds. Know that there are a lot of touchy/sensitive subjects. It was funny, incredibly sad, and totally different from anything I’ve read. 

My only complaint is that I need updates on all of these women, especially Jael. Her chapter had me weak.

Favorite quotes:

“We miss their bare brown arms reaching to hang clothes on the line with wooden pins. We miss their Sun tea brewed all day in big jars on the picnic table in the backyard.”

“We miss how they made our Easter dresses and pound cakes and a way out of no way.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Death of parent, and Dementia

Minor: Drug use, Fatphobia, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence