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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
slow-paced
reflective
sad
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
The author narrated the book, which I always appreciate. It was a hard listen as far as content, but this book will stay with me awhile.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
I do tire of the persistent theme of grasping desperately for resolution that oozes rampantly in the memoirs of inherently privileged people who must spend half their words convincing readers of their suffering. These usually translate into a closing page or chapter of: "in the end, it was all about finding ____ all along" and fill in your choice cliche of socially acceptable success, self-love, partner love, or other such "unorthodox" achievement that really is quite orthodox, the discovery of which is still a literary exercise in self-congratulations.
^^This is probably an unfair generalization resulting from reading more memoirs this past year to better understand how I'd approach one someday. DOCILE itself will probably be relatable and inspiring to many readers, and maybe my preference for utilitarian self-acceptance over saccharine self-love is the limiting factor in my ability to admit that I, too, found this artist's story relatable and inspiring after all.
Should the number of stars I give to a memoir be dependent on how likely I would be friends with the author? That seems unfair, but I can't pretend that's not a factor here.
The writing is descriptive, the self-reflection eloquent. Yet somehow, probably due to my own experiences that leave me annoyed about the lack of meaningful and unique hardship in this story (by my standards), I simply cannot bring myself to say I enjoyed reading this as much as I felt obligated to finish it out of some vague sense of AAPI solidarity with the ubiquitous theme of "my parents were mean to me".
^^This is probably an unfair generalization resulting from reading more memoirs this past year to better understand how I'd approach one someday. DOCILE itself will probably be relatable and inspiring to many readers, and maybe my preference for utilitarian self-acceptance over saccharine self-love is the limiting factor in my ability to admit that I, too, found this artist's story relatable and inspiring after all.
Should the number of stars I give to a memoir be dependent on how likely I would be friends with the author? That seems unfair, but I can't pretend that's not a factor here.
The writing is descriptive, the self-reflection eloquent. Yet somehow, probably due to my own experiences that leave me annoyed about the lack of meaningful and unique hardship in this story (by my standards), I simply cannot bring myself to say I enjoyed reading this as much as I felt obligated to finish it out of some vague sense of AAPI solidarity with the ubiquitous theme of "my parents were mean to me".
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced