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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
A powerful, layered read. You journey with the author as though you are her - there is darkness, but never pity. She is stronger than the men that have wronged her. Closed the book feeling empowered and proud to be a woman.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment
Moderate: Eating disorder, Self harm
DNF I don’t know how to describe it other than everything felt very hyperbolic
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Generous 3 out of 5 stars.
Struggling with this because of my Britney memoir review in which I said that I didn't think it was fair to review the content of a memoir, only the writing. I also hesitate to say anything critical of AMT lest I be kicked out of the middle aged Millennial women club.
So I will say this: the writing isn't great but it was still somehow "compulsively readable," so there must be some talent here somewhere. I didn't feel that AMT was totally honest with anyone - herself, the reader, or her doctors - but I'm glad she was able to get better. As with Britney's memoir, I think more distance and more therapy could've improved this book significantly. The end felt like AMT just wanted to write her anti-man manifesto (anti-manifesto?) which I would've been cool with, but that's not what this book was and it made it very disjointed.
In conclusion: AMT calling her teenage relationship with a man in his late 20s "deeply odd" instead of abusive or manipulative or traumatic feels, to me, like a great summary of this memoir: get real, babe.
Struggling with this because of my Britney memoir review in which I said that I didn't think it was fair to review the content of a memoir, only the writing. I also hesitate to say anything critical of AMT lest I be kicked out of the middle aged Millennial women club.
So I will say this: the writing isn't great but it was still somehow "compulsively readable," so there must be some talent here somewhere. I didn't feel that AMT was totally honest with anyone - herself, the reader, or her doctors - but I'm glad she was able to get better. As with Britney's memoir, I think more distance and more therapy could've improved this book significantly. The end felt like AMT just wanted to write her anti-man manifesto (anti-manifesto?) which I would've been cool with, but that's not what this book was and it made it very disjointed.
In conclusion: AMT calling her teenage relationship with a man in his late 20s "deeply odd" instead of abusive or manipulative or traumatic feels, to me, like a great summary of this memoir: get real, babe.
Hard to put a rating on this because it is such a personal memoir
Overall, this feels like it was written by someone who is in a real place of hurt and is still too close to the situation to truly digest it, let alone package it for the world to read. The memoir is often too personal, with details that are so raw that I wonder if she might feel different about sharing with more distance from the situation. Her sentiments on patriarchy and men's views on women are generally interesting, but fundamentally overgeneralized and cruel. Some sections she talks about someone disagreeing with her and almost tries to convince the reader that she is in the right...when she often isn't.
Tendler is at her best when writing about Petunia (especially the penultimate chapter). I also think it was kinda a boss move to only lightly allude to the ex-husband instead of sharing more details. While I am hesitant to recommend this because of various triggering sections and flawed logic, there is something very readable about it that makes you not want to put it down. Not really a "bad book" but the kind of book that was probably never supposed to exist
Overall, this feels like it was written by someone who is in a real place of hurt and is still too close to the situation to truly digest it, let alone package it for the world to read. The memoir is often too personal, with details that are so raw that I wonder if she might feel different about sharing with more distance from the situation. Her sentiments on patriarchy and men's views on women are generally interesting, but fundamentally overgeneralized and cruel. Some sections she talks about someone disagreeing with her and almost tries to convince the reader that she is in the right...when she often isn't.
Tendler is at her best when writing about Petunia (especially the penultimate chapter). I also think it was kinda a boss move to only lightly allude to the ex-husband instead of sharing more details. While I am hesitant to recommend this because of various triggering sections and flawed logic, there is something very readable about it that makes you not want to put it down. Not really a "bad book" but the kind of book that was probably never supposed to exist
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced