Reviews tagging 'Torture'

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

10 reviews

eng2's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

Minor: Racism, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

bambooboy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Cursing, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, War, and Classism

Minor: Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

crybabybea's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Amazing. I'm learning this year that I really enjoy nonfiction written by journalists, and Stephanie Foo is no exception. Her writing is accessible and engaging, seamlessly blending personal anecdotes, interviews, facts, and studies to support her main thesis. Foo's intelligence and self-reflection shine through her writing. Her clever humor and insightful conclusions were inspiring. The book feels like a journey alongside her, offering lessons in healing from trauma. 

This is a must-read if you struggle with C-PTSD, or even if you just struggle with trauma or a different mental illness that affects your daily life. Even if you're familiar with C-PTSD, there's much to learn. The book's sad, hard-to-get-through moments are balanced with heartening and meditative insights, showing that healing is non-linear but ultimately intensely rewarding. 

Foo's perspective as an Asian-American adds depth to her memoir, offering compassion for her family's experiences and the broader Asian-American community. She explores her family's past, connecting her trauma with collective experiences, and acknowledges the complexities beyond stereotypes. 

I especially liked the penultimate part, which focused on her sessions with Dr. Jacob Ham. She unlocked a lot of self-discovery by having an open, loving, accepting relationship with her therapist. It was so heartfelt and inspiring to see that relationship blossom and ultimately help Stephanie recover and learn to accept love and kindness rather than self-flagellating and sinking into shame spirals. He emphasized the importance of reconnection and repair and revealed to Stephanie (and to me as a reader) that regulating your emotions and triggers is just the first step in a super complicated dance involving complex relationships and the damage and repair that happens in human connection.

The final couple of pages had me a complete sobbing mess. I really appreciated Stephanie's choice to end the book with a self-reflection about accepting her C-PTSD for what it is; not something that makes her broken and unlovable, but something that makes her who she is.

I highly recommend the audiobook, narrated by the author so it feels intimate and personal. She also included the original audio recordings of her sessions with Dr. Ham, which was a really neat addition that made the audio experience feel more transformative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Rape, Xenophobia, Murder, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

There is no actual car accident but there is an incident of abuse in which the author experiences her father driving maniacally and threatening to kill everyone in the car.

sabrinatayag's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Grief, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

larabookworm22's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

way too relatable-

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence

andreyuhh's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Really great memoir about abuse and how it greatly affects your life. I cried a lot but enjoyed it immensely. It felt like a little part of me was healed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ruthmartinartist's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

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

starlit_pathways's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Hate crime, Racism, Xenophobia, Car accident, and War

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cancer, Child death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Excrement, Kidnapping, Murder, and War