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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Beautifully written and poignant in its exploration of grief. The writing almost has a melodious quality — like a hymn.
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Murder
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Natasha Trethewey is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Poet Laureate. So going into this I was wondering how much of poetry was going to be in the writing of the book, hoping that it wasn't so much that I couldn't follow it (I'm not a poetry person). Trethewey, of course, manages to perfectly use beautiful language to tell a heartbreaking narrative. The central focus of the memoir is her mother's murder by Trethewey's stepfather. We get what I feel is an unprecedented look at the thought process behind a domestic abuser's behavior through transcripts of phone calls between her stepfather and her mother. For me, part of my fascination with true crime is somehow wanting to find out why the murderer decided to murder. I know I'm never going to, but I can't help being so disturbed by it that I want to know why. I can honestly say, after reading the transcripts, that it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because the answer is just not being willing to feel any empathy. This book is not easy to read, I was very emotional reading it because Trethewey writes so beautifully about loss and grief.
If you would like to hear an extended conversation about this book, check out The Bookstore Podcast's Episode 83.
If you would like to hear an extended conversation about this book, check out The Bookstore Podcast's Episode 83.
Three weeks after my mother is dead I dream of her:
[a:Natasha Trethewey|55944|Natasha Trethewey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1321972548p2/55944.jpg] has written a powerful memoir of growing up biracial in the South in the 1960s. The story of her family is well told. Her mother's death at the hands of her husband is heartbreaking. This was a difficult read at times but well worth the time spent reading it.
[a:Natasha Trethewey|55944|Natasha Trethewey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1321972548p2/55944.jpg] has written a powerful memoir of growing up biracial in the South in the 1960s. The story of her family is well told. Her mother's death at the hands of her husband is heartbreaking. This was a difficult read at times but well worth the time spent reading it.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This book is beautifully written and paced perfectly. It's just so, so heavy. Although I do think Trethewey does a good job at pulling away before things get too bleak, the dozen or more pages of phone transcripts at the very end were too much for me. I understand why they were added, I just want to warn this book is not for the weak of heart.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse
Minor: Murder
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Very short and emotionally packed memoir about her mother's brutal murder. Trethewey talks about her childhood and how it was impacted by domestic abuse and then how that impacted her as an adult after her mother's death. Even though the subject is devastating, the writing is very beautiful.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Murder
I don't know what to think about this. It was beautifully written, but it felt more like a therapeutic exercise than an actual story? She has some extreme survivor's guilt that this book probably helped her deal with, but it was just such a personal account without a message (that I could find), to the point where it felt like I was a voyuer reading someone's diary that I found.
That sense of intimacy with the author may be what other people love about this book, but it made me uncomfortable on multiple occasions. This is a completely tragic story dealing with mental illness, domestic abuse, and trauma. And I don't think I was in the right mindset to read it.
That sense of intimacy with the author may be what other people love about this book, but it made me uncomfortable on multiple occasions. This is a completely tragic story dealing with mental illness, domestic abuse, and trauma. And I don't think I was in the right mindset to read it.
I don’t really know how to feel about this book. I think it’s important to read and it is certainly heartbreaking. Hearing the memoir of a mixed race women who has lost her mother to domestic homicide definitely affected me as a reader. My only problem with it is it felt sort of stale and sometimes too wordy. It just didn’t keep my interest that much. It’s a short read but had it been longer, I’m not sure I would have finished it, truthfully.
*thanks to netgalley, the author and publisher for the free copy to review
*thanks to netgalley, the author and publisher for the free copy to review
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Murder