Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee

9 reviews

keanusmom's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Medical content, and Suicidal thoughts

sarah984's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

3.0

I think this was a really courageous thing to publish but the book itself is not organized very well - it's transcripts of therapy sessions and some seemingly unrelated short essays - and the psychiatrist honestly didn't seem very helpful aside from prescribing medications.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Fatphobia, Suicide, Medical content, Classism, Alcoholism, and Child abuse

imaggienary's review against another edition

sad slow-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol and Chronic illness

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, and Medical content

Minor: Fatphobia and Violence

viviundworte's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

3.75

too many random essays at the end of the book 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Body shaming, Alcohol, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Medical content

navayiota's review

reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

I was really excited about this book. I got it as a birthday gift and started it immediately. It was very slow, but I gave it time, I thought it would pick up after a few chapters. Sadly, it did not. I think it's a great book for people who have just now began thinking about their mental health and behaviour, but as someone who went through the revelations she describes in the book years ago, it was a bit tiring to read. It felt like reading my journal from 5 years ago, but without the insight of what was happening in my life at the time. However, it is full of super annotatable quotes and the translation is superb, so great job there. I don't regret reading this, but if I was given the chance, I probably would have picked a different book to get as a present. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, and Medical content

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Drug use, and Classism

machetemilk's review against another edition

reflective fast-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

Minor: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Child abuse

leif's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Body shaming, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Classism

Therapy sessions are included so lots of sensitive topics are discussed but it all seemed really sensitively handled to me.

tomoonarmy's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness and Grief

Minor: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

suzyreadsbooks's review against another edition

medium-paced

2.5

About 65% of this book was made up of therapy transcripts between Baek Sehee and her psychiatrist. She talks about feeling aimlessly depressed, inadequate, and self conscious. We get little pieces of advice, hear her confessions about deep-rooted feelings, see the repetitive nature of therapy, and witness the ups and downs of her experiences w psychiatric medication.

Following each transcript was a very short reflection on what it taught her. At the end, there are slightly longer reflections from her and her psychiatrist, and a slightly random collection of vignettes of Sehee’s feelings about various aspects of her life, such as her grandma, her dogs, and growing older. 

I would have loved an afterword with some context about how this book was received in South Korea, where it was originally published and became a bestseller. I imagine it’s been helpful for destigmatizing therapy and medication, especially for people who have never had these experiences themselves.

I felt like the transcripts were lacking context (e.g. suddenly her psychiatrist is speaking with her about a breakup, but we hadn’t been told that she had been broken up with), and it cut off somewhat arbitrarily after a 12 week period even though she was clearly going to continue sessions after that point. I wish that the proportion of transcripts vs reflections had been different.

It was interesting to see the very directive style of therapy. But this book made me realize that therapy sessions are sort of mundane if you’re not the one experiencing the specific concerns at hand. Like my therapy sessions might seem enlightening to me but could be basic advice to someone w different life experiences.

thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for the eARC!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Mental illness, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical content