Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir by Michele Harper

12 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

luckyonesoph's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.5

A really solid medical memoir! I really appreciated how Dr. Harper talked through her decision-making, and the dynamics between all the staff members at emergency departments. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and Medical content

Moderate: Sexual assault, Gun violence, and Sexual violence

pisces1_1318's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Dr. Michele Harper memoir was so touching and interesting. Her storytelling is unlike any memoirs I have ever read. I often forgot that this was a true story. We need more Dr. Harper's in medicine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Death, Body horror, and Blood

d0505's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, and Gun violence

Moderate: Racism, Rape, Child abuse, Terminal illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

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

poppyseedromance's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Suicide attempt, Abortion, Alcohol, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Classism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, and Suicidal thoughts

drbrizzlybear's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Cancer, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, and Sexual assault

ekmook's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual assault

Moderate: Gun violence and Murder

claudiamacpherson's review

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

2.5

I read this for my university’s virtual book club because I am trying to branch out in the types of books that I read. I typically don’t read nonfiction or memoirs, but after loving Becoming earlier this year I thought I might like another autobiography… but this one did not do it for me. I enjoyed some of the stories, but the book overall felt very preachy and holier-than-thou. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Medical trauma

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Violence