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4.32 AVERAGE
4.32 AVERAGE
T Kira Madden writes about her life filled with love, family, drugs, sex, death, and reconnections with a poetic sense that brought calmness to the reader. I really enjoyed this book because it was everything I didn’t expect from the title and told beautiful stories from several perspectives. I also enjoyed how each chapter was a different story but they all tied together.
So much packed into one book. Not one thing to overcome, but challenge upon challenge upon challenge. Her book is beautiful and truthful and full of hope.
Intense and heartbreaking. I was saddest reading about her teen years, most engaged reading about her relationship with her mom
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
I loved this memoir. It belongs on the shelf next to Ariel Gore, Lidia Yuknavitch, Briallen Hopper, Chelsea Clammer, Chanel Miller -- but it's not like them, exactly, it's just its own gorgeously honest work. I love writers who can take me inside a context so far from anything I've experienced and make me feel the humanity of it anyway, and do it with gorgeous language.
"You feel self-conscious that he'll see your fingers in the daylight--the wet open wounds around your nails where you gnaw the skin off, where you've been cutting with safety pins at night. You always carry yourself with fists, your thumbs tucked in. Sometimes, when it's worse, you wrap each fingertip in bandages for school. Your mother says you look like a serial killer that way, and this only makes you do it more."
"In the mirror you think: I don't look like a girl anymore.
And then: I look like such a pathetic little girl.
And then: maybe this is what a woman looks like.
And then: I look sexy like this. Beaten. Theirs.
And then: I wish I were a boy.
And then: I look like every other girl there ever was."
"In the mirror you think: I don't look like a girl anymore.
And then: I look like such a pathetic little girl.
And then: maybe this is what a woman looks like.
And then: I look sexy like this. Beaten. Theirs.
And then: I wish I were a boy.
And then: I look like every other girl there ever was."
A solid four.
Sometimes it felt like a five to me, but not consistently. I highly recommend the audiobook version (though hate that it's an Audible exclusive). T Kira's voice is (unsurprisingly) perfect for her story.
My childhood was nothing like T Kira's, for which I am overwhelmingly thankful. Between her parents' addictions and neglect and violence to her intense sexual and substance-related experiences at what felt like an absurdly young age, I could not fully believe that a fully formed and incredibly well-spoken and self-aware human emerged from all those years of trauma.
The book jumped around between short stories and they were structured in a way (not always chronological) that I felt did a good job of showing the loving sides of her family relationships and childhood in between those about the sheer chaos that it felt like she predominantly existed in.
What I mean by that is that it felt like I knew her mother loved her unconditionally from the early stories, even when in later ones the situation would make it hard for me to believe that at all.
I imagine it's a very true portrayal of parents struggling with addiction and their own issues while also having fits and spurts of clarity and inclinations toward being a good parent.
It was hard to imagine that for a child, but it seems like it at least worked out in the end with both of her parents getting clean and having a good relationship as a family.
I think this is definitely worth reading if you're interested in personal writings like this and, if you were born somewhere around the late '80s, recall that parts of it felt very relevant and familiar for someone who is a very similar age to Madden.
Stories about elementary and middle school had particular details that were common to my experiences as well, which is always kind of fascinating since our lives were so completely different otherwise.
I didn't know much about this book going into it, but I've accidentally read a lot of memoirs and nonfiction this year, so it's funny I accidentally landed on another one when trying to track down a book for a specific Popsugar category. If you're a fan of the genre, Madden is a great writer and I will keep an eye out for more from her in the future.
--
ATY 2022: #22 - A book with a Jewish character or author
Popsugar 2022: #15 - A book by a Pacific Islander
(Not directly, but Madden's mother is of native Hawaiian descent)
Sometimes it felt like a five to me, but not consistently. I highly recommend the audiobook version (though hate that it's an Audible exclusive). T Kira's voice is (unsurprisingly) perfect for her story.
My childhood was nothing like T Kira's, for which I am overwhelmingly thankful. Between her parents' addictions and neglect and violence to her intense sexual and substance-related experiences at what felt like an absurdly young age, I could not fully believe that a fully formed and incredibly well-spoken and self-aware human emerged from all those years of trauma.
The book jumped around between short stories and they were structured in a way (not always chronological) that I felt did a good job of showing the loving sides of her family relationships and childhood in between those about the sheer chaos that it felt like she predominantly existed in.
What I mean by that is that it felt like I knew her mother loved her unconditionally from the early stories, even when in later ones the situation would make it hard for me to believe that at all.
I imagine it's a very true portrayal of parents struggling with addiction and their own issues while also having fits and spurts of clarity and inclinations toward being a good parent.
It was hard to imagine that for a child, but it seems like it at least worked out in the end with both of her parents getting clean and having a good relationship as a family.
I think this is definitely worth reading if you're interested in personal writings like this and, if you were born somewhere around the late '80s, recall that parts of it felt very relevant and familiar for someone who is a very similar age to Madden.
Stories about elementary and middle school had particular details that were common to my experiences as well, which is always kind of fascinating since our lives were so completely different otherwise.
I didn't know much about this book going into it, but I've accidentally read a lot of memoirs and nonfiction this year, so it's funny I accidentally landed on another one when trying to track down a book for a specific Popsugar category. If you're a fan of the genre, Madden is a great writer and I will keep an eye out for more from her in the future.
--
ATY 2022: #22 - A book with a Jewish character or author
Popsugar 2022: #15 - A book by a Pacific Islander
(Not directly, but Madden's mother is of native Hawaiian descent)
dark
funny
reflective
sad