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pseudolain's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent
Moderate: Abortion
Minor: Car accident
bashsbooks's review against another edition
4.5
Now I'm going to listen to Japanese Breakfast's Psychopomp.
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, and Alcohol
Minor: Body shaming, Infidelity, Blood, Vomit, and Car accident
cateyackerman's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Car accident
rayinbooks's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Medical trauma
paigereitz's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol
olekittycat's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Gaslighting
wickedgrumpy's review against another edition
2.5
It was alright. I teared up a few times. The descriptions of food were verbose and evocative, sometimes excessively so. I love Maangchi.
This is a story of grief and mourning, of finding your identity and how it changes as you grow, relationships and connections.
Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Moderate: Death, Fatphobia, and Excrement
Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Abortion, and Cultural appropriation
authorbrittanibee's review against another edition
However, I still find myself struggling to give a star rating for her memoir. I believe this is primarily because her story shines a light directly onto my own life and the recent struggles I have found myself facing in regards to the parent/ child dynamic and the issues that stem from generational trauma.
While reading this memoir, I found (and highlighted) many instances where the dynamics between Michelle and her mother (and sometimes her father) felt toxic or uncomfortable. Of course, I must note that I read this story through a very specific lens having recently decided to cut ties with both of my parents. But--from my outside perspective--the dynamics within this family did not seem the most healthy and caused me a mixture of frustration and heartbreak when Michelle turned the blame onto herself.
I literally had to close this book for a few weeks as it became too much for me to read. The enmeshed relationship between mother and daughter felt too similar to my own, which left me emotionally drained.
In the end, my takeaway from this book is that the parent/ child relationship is one of the most complex relationships we will ever experience in our lives and everyone views it differently, oftentimes vastly. We can never truly know or understand the feelings that run deep within the relationships between families outside of our own, nor can we (or should we) judge any person's choice to stay within those dynamics or leave them entirely. And to add in an additional layer of becoming a parental caretaker complicates matters even more, creating a large, swirling vortex of feelings that may never become untangled.
I thoroughly enjoyed Michelle's thoughtful and emotional portrayal of her complex relationship with her mother and how they grew closer together during a time of great crisis, but also how the early loss of her mother left a mixture of grief and questions and an unsteady path forward.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, and Death of parent
liv_txt's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, and Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, and Alcohol
ava_ba's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Xenophobia, Excrement, and Abortion