Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

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

4 reviews

lizzieinmt's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Cursing, and Suicidal thoughts

gabhopesreads's review against another edition

5.0

This is the best memoir I've ever read. It's so well-written, phenomenal on audio and one of my favorites this year so far. I loved the narration, plus the included audios of her therapy sessions. I loved how she went into details about history, hers and forgotten history, erased history. I loved how it felt like I was put under a microscope and dissected, but in actuality she was explaining her C-PTSD. At the end, the message of hope mirrored my own that I was lucky enough to find years ago. I wish I'd read this sooner, when I'd been drowning in my diagnosis. But the thing with C-PTSD is it's always there, so this will be helpful to read at any point in my life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pandemic/Epidemic, Hate crime, Gun violence, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Racism, Grief, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Domestic abuse, Cultural appropriation, Child abuse, Car accident, and Bullying

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

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

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

Minor: Body shaming, War, Incest, and Infertility

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