Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Tung by Kiese Laymon

83 reviews

ems888's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Racism

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Sexual assault

Minor: Police brutality

rlgreen91's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

This was a hard read.  True and necessary but yet so so hard.  I often found myself taking breaks, reading whole other books - including Wild Seed, which is its own kind of hard - because this was, as the title says, Heavy.

But as I said, this was necessary.  The political is personal and the personal is political.  The political and policy decisions we make has repercussions years, decades, centuries later.  So much of the pain we deal with as a society is the consequences of deliberate political and policy decisions made by forebearers and ancestors.  So much of the pain we deal with in our personal lives are the consequences of decisions made in response to those political and policy decisions.  Simultaneously, we are the forebearers and ancestors making the political and policy decisions and decisions in response to that that will cause pain for others in the future.  It all becomes this overwhelming, never-ending maze of hurt in many ways.

How do we start to heal on a personal and societal level?  Hell, how do we just get it to stop hurting, at least?  I agree with Laymon that that requires a level of honesty and vulnerability that many of us, myself included, struggle to engage with or refuse to contemplate.

This was a hard but necessary read - a memoir I will surely revisit but at least a good number of years from now.  Maybe then I'll have a better idea of how to answer my questions.  Until then - basking in Black abundance. 4.5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Eating disorder, and Racism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Medical content

vavocado's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Eating disorder

Moderate: Addiction

marena02's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Car accident, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

kayleajayne's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

This book is heartbreaking and honest. I do not like some of the things I read, but I relate to the mistakes and hurt between parents and their children from multi-generational poverty and trauma. Add the layer of being a black male in an anti-black world, and it’s gut-wrenching. It made me cry. It’s beautiful , but there is a call to action for us. I’m not sure many want to answer the honest call to action here. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Body shaming

Moderate: Sexual content

mattyvreads's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This is, without a doubt, my favorite book that I have read this year. I devoured it. Immensely captivating, unwaveringly poignant. An actual masterpiece.

It is a courageous exploration of Layson’s personal navigation through addiction, discrimination, physical and emotional abuse, eating disorders, mental health, grief — all underscored and interwoven with the racial and gendered perspective of his lived experience. 

The book is incredibly accessible, offering not just a baseline understanding of issues on racism and feminism, but through personal stories, working the reader up to examples of intersectional discrimination, examples of misogynior, and examples of a complex relationship with the human body. He offers critique of the elitism and inherent racism of major universities.

But, somehow, the book is not “preachy” whatsoever. (And even if it was, I’d still be here for the ride.) It’s tender, it’s emotional, it’s personal in a way that says: “this is my experience. This was my friend’s experience. This was my mom’s experience.” It’s incontestably honest and indefatigably moving. 

I can’t stop thinking about this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Hate crime, and Rape

Minor: Misogyny

kshertz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

It’s really difficult to write a story like this. This is America and this is his life. I was really emotional throughout this entire book because it was incredibly touching and difficult to see what he had gone through. It was also incredibly important to see that he is representative of a larger group of people. He is a truly gifted writer too and I found myself crying a few times which has not happened in a book in a while.  This book definitely lives up to the hype and everyone should read it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

bootsmom3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Cursing, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Minor: Dementia

michelle_my_belle's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

karmapen's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Vomit