Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir by Michele Harper

19 reviews

samarakroeger's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

3.0

a fairly run of the mill memoir that took a preachy turn towards the end. 

Dr. Harper tries to interweave her traumatic upbringing with vignettes about her ER patients but spends too much time lecturing on the beauty of yoga and not enough on meaningful self-reflection. I thought she was leaning too heavily on the inevitable emotions of the ER (like dead babies) to carry the heft of the memoir. It didn’t really work. 

There’s still plenty of interesting material to engage in, though, so I’m not mad about finally reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Cancer, Rape, Medical trauma, Abortion, Domestic abuse, Death, Gun violence, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Terminal illness

rbrown's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

I absolutely adored this book! I’m usually a reader of fiction and have this book a try after seeing it as a recommended book at a local bookstore and I am so glad I did. Dr Harper is incredibly insightful and has a gift not only for medicine but to delicately describe life and death and connect to her own everyday experiences and emotions. This book made me take a step and look into my on lived experiences and traumas and the hopes to move forward. I sincerely hope she continues to write! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, and Medical trauma

Minor: Violence and Xenophobia

vavocado's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Medical trauma

Moderate: Domestic abuse

effortlesslybookishbre_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Death, Medical content, and Mental illness

autumnflorence's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Drug use, Death, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Physical abuse

sofipitch's review

dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

Harper bears witness and gives voice to how societies failure often brings patients to her as an ER doctor. This book was not only surprisingly hopeful but after everything Harper herself has gone through and then seen you really end up hopeful yourself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Police brutality

Moderate: Racism, Physical abuse, Cancer, Gun violence, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Bullying, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Addiction, Abortion, and Alcoholism

blackcatkai's review

informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

CW: death (child & adult), child abuse, ableism, fatphobic & trans-exclusionary vibes (as is common when dealing with the medical/health field as a whole, apparently), sexual assault 

overall i enjoyed reading about Dr Harper & her beginning years in the medical field. mostly the last 1/3rd kind of got under my skin, but that may be a preference thing. a lot of good insight here, though the author is big into forgiveness to grow while I am a firm proponent of you don't owe anyone anything, not even forgiveness. 

you can absolutely grow & flourish without needing to forgive someone who hurt you. but that's just me and that's ok! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical trauma, Medical content, Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, Chronic illness, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Racism, Rape, Terminal illness, Violence, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Ableism, Drug abuse, Addiction, Cancer, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Police brutality, Abortion, Fatphobia, Grief, and Drug use

sixxed's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Child abuse

Moderate: Rape

riona_y's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Medical content

Moderate: Rape, Child abuse, and Death

Minor: Drug abuse and Alcoholism

maya_reads_books's review against another edition

reflective fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Child death

Minor: Abortion, Rape, and Sexual assault