Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Tung by Kiese Laymon

40 reviews

orireading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Addiction, Body shaming, Child abuse, Car accident, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, and Sexual content

slpellicci's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Eating disorder, Drug use, Domestic abuse, and Body shaming

cleches's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

4.0

(Audiobook) “Heavy” has so many meanings in this book. Kiese had the heavy burden of growing up a Black boy/man in the deep south. He dealt with the heaviness of abuse in many forms. Among other things, he was heavy physically and struggled with an eating disorder. Kiese endured a lot but there is beauty in the heaviness he survived.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

evagomoore's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, and Adult/minor relationship

taratearex's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

First read 2019, physical book: 
An incredible book, a must read.

Reread 2023, audiobook:
This is a beautiful and heart wrenching memoir. This remains a necessary read about racism and it's effects on Black people, particularly in how it effects the body and mental health. Rereading this book makes me want to reread Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun Harrison. 

The first time I read this book I could not put it down, this time I took my time with the audiobook. The prose is stunning and the vulnerability draws you in, I found both ways of reading it to be deeply engaging, but it is always an experience to hear an author read their own memoir. Kiese Laymon's writing is so poetic that hearing him read it added a sort of slam poetry performance to many parts of it, making it even more emotional and visceral of an experience. 

I read his debut novel last year, which I hadn't read when I first read this memoir so that also brought a different experience to hearing him talk about it here, but also just really emphasized what I love about his writing- the poetic rhythm and play on words and just love for language. So going back to his memoir to how he developed as a writer was an interesting perspective. 

There are too many lines that I could quote, but given this was a reread and I've gotten very into rereading recently, this really stuck out to me:
"I learned you haven't really read anything unless you've only read anything once or twice. Reading things more than twice was the reader version of revision"

I reread this on almost the exact dates as I first did in 2019


TW: Eating disorder, Child abuse, Racism, Fatphobia, Addiction, Sexual violence

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Addiction, Child abuse, Eating disorder, and Racism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, and Alcohol

paigeno's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Self harm and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Vomit

hanawulu's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

4.5

In this book, Kiese Laymon grapples directly with what we each inherit from this society and from our closest loved ones.  Feels like a book about "how we carry it all or not". Pretty remarkable example of a memoir narrated in second person, from a son to his mother. As is usual for Kiese Laymon's work (to my read at least) the story jumps between registers and has very intentional variations in tone that guide you through the story. 

I struggled to start this book a few years ago for content/trigger warning reasons. On second attempt, a few years later, I am struck by how everything in this book fits together. I started to appreciate every page. Basically, I started to trust the structure of the book more. This is a book with several different layers of story to follow (the interpersonal relationships, the narrator's own understanding of trauma and love, what's going on with food/body/eating in the book, what's going on with place/geography, etc). The content needs space and time to develop.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Sexual violence, and Physical abuse

miandrade's review against another edition

dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Racism

stevie's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Hate crime, Infidelity, Islamophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Xenophobia

aqtbenz's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, and Racism

Moderate: Drug abuse