Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

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

27 reviews

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

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

khaben31's review against another edition

challenging dark 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, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Colonisation

Minor: Drug use and Pandemic/Epidemic

mswarbrick's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

A beautiful reflection on complex trauma in all it's messy glory. Stephanie Foo does a stunning job articulating the experience of living CPTSD and gives amazing glimpses into her own journey to getting help. Also gives a lovely overview of many of the currently accepted treatments for trauma but acknowledges their shortcomings and the lack of knowledge that still exists surrounding CPTSD. If you'd like to better understand a survivor, or if you are the survivor seeking to better understand yourself, this book is for you! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Colonisation

maybezed's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative sad fast-paced

5.0

Incredible book. It made me cry and laugh. It surprised me. It helped me. 

I’ve read a lot of books about trauma and healing, but this is among the best. Hearing the snippets of conversations with her therapist were revelatory. 

It was hopeful and honest. I am so thankful to the author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Kidnapping, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

codemasterpi's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

meganbrinson's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

So so so important. Really helped me understand my intellectualizing tendencies. Foo also does a great job situating trauma in a larger context. “Love begets love” really did it for me <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Colonisation

sarahbeaman's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

finishing this book felt like letting out a lifelong exhale. what a gorgeous, reflective and well-researched memoir about growing up and growing through complex ptsd, and about how love and family always find those who are brave enough to reach for them (despite despite despite).

i saw so much of myself in this book while also learning so much about the unique complexities of c-ptsd for people of colour or anyone from a marginalised group. one that will stay with me, i hope, for a long long time.

quotes that stuck out to me:

“Being healed isn't about fecling nothing. Being healed is about feeling the appropriate emotions at the appropriate times and still being able to come back to yourself.”

"Love is not a finite resource, something you have to mete out carefully like a package of Oreos. Instead, providing love begets more love, which begets more and more love.“

”I decide I'll get to washing up when I get to it. I'll get to everything when I get to it. The world will keep turning. The tacos are delicious, and I take my time eating them. And then I'm marveling: Oh, wow. Maybe this life I’ve got is going to be spectacular, after all.”

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Abandonment, and Colonisation

epiphyte's review

challenging dark hopeful inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Colonisation

rubellaface's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Quick caveat: I do not have C-PTSD. I am a second-generation Filipino American who grew up to have high-functioning anxiety & depression due to tiger parenting, growing up Asian American, and being forced to become an alpha daughter. 

Reading this book triggered me and had me questioning my reality and how I’ve often laughed-off or disassociated my personal trauma in order to succeed in life (and therefore be perceived as being okay). Her coping mechanisms were/are my coping mechanisms, and funnily enough, I didn’t even realize they were coping mechanisms. So as Stephanie went down the rabbit hole of finding out what her bones know and how to fix it, I was right beside her– transfixed and checking my own bones for fissures and trauma from similar situations in my family life. 

Cause Stephanie Foo does not pull her punches when recounting her childhood. Every abusive situation is described in a way that is almost clinical and ripe for analyzing. Her book is basically an emotional autopsy of her trauma, and the way she uses her journalism background to thoroughly vet every single c-ptsd-related therapy is both thrilling and heartbreaking. As a reader, you want Stephanie to find a therapy that works for her and that can “cure” her, and I just wanted to hug her each time a practice or therapist failed her. 

Needless to say, I was emotionally invested in Stephanie’s book. I cried towards the end as she found stable ground and the tools to fight for her peace of mind. And I cried again at the similarities in how we approached our weddings and wedding guests. Her healing journey echoed and reaffirmed my own, and I will recommend this book to all my AAPI friends who I know have gone through sh*t and are trying their best.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Colonisation, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Very triggering. Sometimes in a good way.