Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

7 reviews

alexisgarcia's review

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

i didn’t think i could ever give a story collection 5 stars. this collection had absolutely no misses, a few were better than others, but none were even close to bad. i loved loved this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Death, Cursing, Dementia, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Bullying, Classism, Domestic abuse, Infertility, and Sexual assault

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

kaimetcalfe's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Medical content, Dementia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Infidelity, Sexism, Infertility, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

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

emliza's review

challenging emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Cursing, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Racism

rockyroadbutch's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Dementia, Fatphobia, Grief, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

hollyd19's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is a collection of short stories that spotlights Black women of various ages as they push against prescribed narratives & wrestle with purpose, sexuality, and worth. One endorsement described the collection as “cheeky and insightful” and I second that. I can’t say every story was for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed How to Make Love to a Physicist, Peach Cobbler, Snowfall, and Instructions for Married Christian Men. The stories are rich, artistically diverse, and deeply human. 

I was surprised (perhaps I shouldn’t have been, given the word ‘secrets’ in the title) by how heavily sex factored in nearly all the stories. It was never gratuitous or explicit, but it did play a much larger role than I had expected. Additionally, I had the impression that the collection would be more... fun? Honestly, for the most part I found it fairly bleak. That’s not to say it wasn’t tender and at times funny, but most stories left me feeling rather melancholy. Each woman featured faces some significant strain — emotionally, relationally, etc — and I would have loved at least one story to be robustly joyful (the closest is How To Make Love to a Physicist). Finally, there is ample mention of church life & culture, but I wouldn’t define any of the protagonists as “church ladies.” They are all church-lady-adjacent, but perhaps that was Philyaw’s chosen device: a window into the lives of church ladies from those who are in some way outside the fold.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Cursing, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Sexual content, and Racism

Minor: Murder