Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

72 reviews

iamninjabuni's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

1.0

 

I do not recommend listening to this as an audiobook as the author (who reads it) is incredibly monotone and difficult to listen to. I often found myself having to go back because I had completely zoned out to whatever she was droning about due to her complete lack of tone. My review does not reflect how difficult it was to listen to her, but the content of the book itself. 

That aside, I think that this book was written for the author herself and it probably should have stayed in her journals. I understand that this is a book on grief and have tried to view it through that lens, everyone grieves differently. I had hoped to find something to relate to in the realm of parental loss or the difficult relationship between mother and daughter but did not find the author relatable at all. That wouldn’t be a big deal, but the author seems to have gone out of her way to alienate her audience. 

She comes off as whiny, spoiled, petulant, and ungrateful – maybe it is an only child thing? There is no introspection. She bemoans her disconnection to her culture while also stating that she never bothered to learn it. She gives no thought to what her family members may be feeling and comes across as self-centered. Again, something I could dismiss to grief if she didn’t spend so much time talking about how angry she was that her sick mother wouldn’t eat the food she made and how difficult it was for her to care for her. That could also be chalked up to her mentally and physically abusive upbringing, which the author brings up in an offhanded way and does not really address. Again – maybe this should have stayed private 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

phdoyle's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death, Cancer, Death of parent, Body shaming, and Medical content

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Drug use, Abortion, Mental illness, Excrement, Car accident, and Emotional abuse

katyfortner's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

3.25

I think I wasn’t in the right mind frame to read this book right now. While I enjoyed it and it didn’t make me reflect on my life and my friend’s hardships, it was really sad. Also, I understand forgiving your mother because she is no longer here but I don’t think parental abuse should be tolerated or bypassed because it was the way she loved her child. She shouldn’t have hit her child no matter the cultural norms.
The writing is very good and really pulled at your heart strings. The author is very strong to have gone through all of this and still coming out on top of life.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Medical content, Child abuse, Grief, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, and Death

Minor: Abortion

jessybean's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

This book was so beautiful! 
I was gripped from beginning to end, the writing was heart breaking.
I love Japanese breakfast so I’m not surprised that the prose of the book flowed so beautifully. It perfectly portrayed the difficult relationship she had with her mother and highlighted that love is not black and white. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Emotional abuse

olivia_piepmeier's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

I had heard this was good so I started reading it and couldn't stop. Zauner has a way with words, capturing adolescence, grief, the honesty of emotions, and challenging parental relationships indescribably well. Further, she ties her story up so neatly with the loss of her mother. It would be easy to stray from the focus but especially with our relationship with our parents, they work their way into many facets of our lives. Anyone that has lost someone, particularly to cancer, will have some sort of hard time with this. In summary, it's a devastating read written with heart and honesty.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Grief, Cancer, Medical content, Terminal illness, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Body shaming, Excrement, and Alcoholism

Minor: Car accident

maxinesf's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Medical content, Cancer, Death, Grief, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Minor: Alcoholism and Drug abuse

kelly_e's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

Title: Crying in H Mart
Author: Michelle Zauner
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 3.0
Pub Date: April 21, 2021

T H R E E • W O R D S

Raw • Illuminating • Surface-level

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Crying in H Mart is a memoir about growing up, caregiving, death, grief and identity from Michelle Zauner.

She details growing up as one of the few Korean American kids at her school; of struggling with her mother's high expectations; of time spent with her mother's family in Seoul; of caring for her mother through the end of life; of death and grief; and of reconnecting with her identity.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Sometimes the hype can have an adverse effect on my reading experience, and that was certainly the case with Crying in H Mart. I went in expecting a life-alternating and moving memoir dealing with death and grief, yet I didn't get the emotional depth I'd anticipated.

That's not to say this wasn't an incredibly personal and healing journey for the author, which I imagine it was. It felt like a story which needed to be written, yet not necessarily read. The writing was accessible, and Michelle details an intimate look into the daily routine of caregiving for someone at the end of life. It's always interesting to read about how people discover their culture, especially in grief. And food does play a role throughout, however, I'd expected there to be more of how food is a source of human connection through the good and the bad. I just wanted more depth and emotion.

Crying in H Mart is a beautiful exploration of mother/daughter relationships and an open dialogue on dying and grief, it just wasn't the all encompassing sensory experience I'd been wanting or needing.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers looking for a mother/daughter memoir
• grievers

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"It felt like the world had divided into two different types of people, those who had felt pain and those who had yet to."

"Food was an unspoken language between us, had come to symbolize our return to each other, our bonding, our common ground." 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Cancer, and Medical content

Moderate: Vomit, Medical trauma, Addiction, Drug use, Racism, Chronic illness, Alcohol, Drug abuse, and Alcoholism

Minor: Abortion, Car accident, Infidelity, and Suicidal thoughts

imrereads's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death of parent, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Drug use, and Grief

deetabz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Grief, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcohol, Mental illness, Racism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Car accident, Drug use, Medical content, and Abortion

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Excrement, and Infidelity

nikkikeist's review against another edition

I’m not in a place where I can read this. It also started to sound like she forgave her mom for a lot of the abuse just because her mom loved her. There was probably more nuance explored on that topic but I don’t have the emotional capacity to read it right now. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse