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blester042590's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.0
alison_the_librarian's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
4.0
I wish I’d read it rather than listened. He’s got a lot of complex ideas I would have liked to have more time to mull over. He also sometimes jumps around through time in a way that was hard for me to follow by ear.
hollydyer328's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
Very emotional love letter from Kiese Laymon to his mother. You see the interconnection of his complicated relationship with his mom and surviving racism as a Black man, and how he explores various facets of manipulating his body to cope. It’s a perspective you do to hear as much from a Black man but one that is so important! His writing is very poetic and emotional, which I had a hard time getting into at first but grew to enjoy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, and Body shaming
jeffbrimhall's review against another edition
Audiobook: Hard to listen to discussion of abuse and neglect as a child to self destructive behaviors as an adult. He apparently turned out ok but a lot of pain getting there.
madeleinegeorge's review against another edition
5.0
Definitively one of the best memoirs of the century. Laymon quickly and decisively channels his voice, building his youth, adolescence, and adulthood into discerning movements of an author's development. HEAVY so radically pushes the borders of American masculinity, explicating the Black experience through carefully wrought episodes of academia, childhood, and loss.