Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo

4 reviews

crystalisreading's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Transformative book,  for both the author,  and any reader open to what she is telling us. Highly likely to be triggering to anyone with cptsd. I had to set it down and take a break multiple  times. But I also learned so much,  about myself and about others.  the audio version is well-done too. Foo works in radio and podcasts, and you can tell.  Hugest recommendation! just please check content warnings first.

Thank you to #NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an advance copy of #WhatMyBonesKnow by Stephanie Foo. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Colonisation, and War

eliya's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

heartbreakingly raw and hard to listen to at points. stephanie foo shares some truly horrifying memories.

fascinating approaches to CPTSD

• some approaches i’m familiar with, some i’ve only day-dreamed about haha. 
• would love to approach conversation in a Nathan Fielder’s “the rehearsal” way lol. gave me some sold things to bring to my therapist when i have one. made me reconsider the way i interact in conversations. 

very informative, kept coming back to the body and physiological responses to trauma, as the title suggests.

• lots of information regarding generational trauma and how it effects people of color. 
• i was particularly intrigued by the
  rat study about generational trauma

cringy / cheesy at some points, as is the nature with healing books. some eyeroll moments where the author acknowledges very briefly but very obviously obligatorily her class privileges to be able to access this type of care. ultimately helpful for me as a reader, though, to see what type of healing is possible (?) even though it definitely feels out of reach rn. 

truly moving and hopeful.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Abandonment

Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Sexism, Medical content, Medical trauma, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

xoxochannychan's review

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

I think this book is a must read. The lessons herein can apply to anybody, not just those with a mental health diagnosis.  The themes are difficult and heavy for younger readers, but I'd recommend to any adult. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Racism

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0

This was really good. It struck me how candid Stephanie was being about her childhood traumas, how those experiences affected her and as a result rippled down to all of Foo's relationships and aspirations.
The descriptions of the childhood abuse was palpable, sickening, and incredibly sad. Major content warnings for these scenes, please take care while reading.

The relationships with her parents in her adulthood was also fascinating. How she manages to maintain some contact with her father despite how much he hurt her. We do what we must to find mental and physical safety but how much we can crave love from our parents even if we fear them. It's a constant balancing act and so emotionally exhausting.

I don't know very much about psychiatry and psychology so this aspect of the memoir was a bit over my head but I still followed along. She made it pretty easy for non-experts to understand the different kinds of treatment she sought. This memoir is so sad, reading about Foo encountering so many hurdles and struggling to find the light at the end of the tunnel. Knowing that she was well enough to write this memoir, reflecting on her life does little to lessen the second-hand blow of her life story to the reader. It's heavy heavy heavy.

I wish her the best in continuing to heal and understand herself before and after the trauma.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cursing, Hate crime, Self harm, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Minor: Body shaming, Incest, Infertility, and War

negative self-talk, bad therapy experiences, victim blaming.