Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

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

19 reviews

clarabooksit's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

I’m not good at reviewing books that wow me, but this blew me away. I love a book that both moves me and educates me, and this did both in spades.

Foo narrates her journey toward self-discovery and well-being with incredible candor and immersive storytelling. Her writing feels effortless and inclusive: it’s not just her story but an invitation to the reader to join her on her journey.

I loved it. Highly, highly recommend. A favorite of the year, for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Police brutality, Medical trauma, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Death and War

antistic's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

The start of the book where she describes the trauma she went through growing up was difficult for me to get through. But I'm glad I did because reading her journey through her trauma and healing was something I absolutely needed at this time. The book touches on trauma, mostly parental abuse but also touches on generational, racial, and workplace trauma. I like how honest she is on what healing feels like — from the difficulties of finding a good therapist, to trying all kinds of different therapies (some of which work for her and some which don't), to including her therapy transcripts within the book. It makes it feel tangible and real, and she wonderfully weaves in some of the current science and theory about trauma to to make a book that feels both personal and broad. I leave the book feeling glad that her life is looking up and hopeful for my own.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcoholism, Racism, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Colonisation

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.

stonams's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcoholism, Infertility, Medical trauma, War, and Injury/Injury detail

kbergsten's review

dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

faduma's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

jialianyang's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

A lovely, touching memoir about complex PTSD, breaking intergenerational cycles, and C-PTSD as beast and superpower. Foo weaves together her perspective as a journalist and child of immigrants with well-researched perspectives on therapies, interventions and mental health. Raw, heart wrenching, funny, and honest. This will make you feel inspired to be more compassionate to yourself, to others, and to earnestly approach your inner child and those around you with a generous, expansive love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, and Abandonment

lilcoppertop's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

romancereader's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Abandonment