Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls

80 reviews

zoemenon's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Bullying, and Child abuse

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, and Sexual assault

sarahrhanks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

An incredible read. I was not only engrossed by the story of Jeannette Walls's life, but also the way she told it. I found myself tearing up, making comments to myself, and smiling at numerous points in the book.   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Addiction, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Bullying, Death of parent, Racism, and Cursing

grizzlysnack's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

A great book about reflecting on your past and dealing with the present and future as it comes to you in terms of family bonds. Very eye-opening and graphic

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Addiction, and Abandonment

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Racism, and Racial slurs

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Death, and Bullying

ginny16205's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Violence

alschoettle's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

abbymatch12's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Racism, and Emotional abuse

ashleycmms's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Child abuse

Moderate: Incest, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, and Homophobia

Minor: Infidelity and Murder

annemaries_shelves's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

One of my oldest TBR books and I'm so incredibly glad I finally picked this up. 

Walls has an incredibly rich talent for story-telling and displays immense vulnerability in sharing her family's story. 
Reading this 10 years after I first learned about it, I have more empathy for the parents and a better ability to understand the nuances and grey zones of parent-child relationships, the circumstances that lead to unstable, unsafe, and neglectful households, and the sheer luck it takes to dig yourself out of systemic poverty the way the Walls children did. 

That said, her parents are terrible parents in a lot of ways. You can tell they love their children and want to install certain values like independent thinking, self-reliance, and others. But this often comes at the cost of healthcare, safety, job and financial security, and others risks. While her parents clearly have some mental health issues and substance use disorders to varying degrees (though she doesn't speculate on this) a lot of the circumstances the Walls found themselves in were entirely preventable and manageable. And that infuriates me. 

I loved reading about the siblings' dynamics and their resourcefulness and determination to make the best of things - and get the hell out of Welch when they no longer could. I'd especially love to read Lori's story one day - she seems to have a unique experience within the family and I think it could resonate with a lot of people (or maybe it's just oldest children relatability for me).

I have two main critiques that could bring my rating down 0.5 stars (but won't because I loved the experience of reading this memoir to much).
1) The pacing was slightly off in the second half. Jeannette Walls devotes so much time to her early childhood, that we often skip significant portions of her teen years and young adulthood. She only discusses the highlights as compared to the substantial exploration of her childhood and set-up of their family dynamics. 
2) Being published in 2005 and set largely in the 60s and 70s there is some outdated language. This includes the R-word and racial slurs. 

Overall this is a wonderful and emotional memoir - I can understand why and how it's become a classic in the genre. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Ableism and Misogyny

janesarah's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Bullying

abnightshade's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Jeannette Walls broke me with her beautiful description of her childhood of being raised by loving but selfishly neglectful adult children. I hated Rex Walls with a passion and yet cried at his death with grief.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Bullying

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Sexual harassment and Sexual assault