Scan barcode
thatbookishwriter's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Miscarriage
Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault
Minor: Sexual content and Sexual harassment
liblibby's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Rape
Moderate: Miscarriage and Pedophilia
Minor: Cancer
annie43's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, and Rape
annuich's review
4.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Sexual assault
patricia_epub's review against another edition
4.0
“When you write about you and me? Just tell the truth. Your truth. Don’t worry about nobody’s feelings, especially not mine. You gotta be tough to tell your truth, but it’s the only thing worth doing next to loving somebody.”
This is a pleasant, spontaneous read that I am so glad I picked up (or clicked on, rather). Ashley C. Ford is a thoughtful writer and this fact shone through the way she wrote her memoir. Her experiences were deeply emotional, scarring, and painful—but she told her story, her truth, with the careful gentleness of someone who struggled for a long time but has also started healing (and continues to heal up to this day), someone who's been learning to be kinder to their selves. She wrote with understanding of the people who shaped her, good and bad. Wrote with sobriety that I think accorded much more nuance to the tone of her memoir.
As I said in my initial impression of this book, there is just so much to unpack. The Black experience is there tied with poverty, trauma, and the universal struggles of women: sexualization of women’s bodies, rape, and assault. There is also the inescapable struggle to reconcile her trauma with her absent father, and the truth behind his absence. Her tumultuous relationship with a detached, abusive single mother. The complicated feelings she associates with a grandmother who is both her loving caregiver but also her harshest critic.
I am truly glad to have heard this story from the author herself through her wonderful narration of the audiobook.
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Rape, and Sexual assault
Minor: Pedophilia, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Stalking, Bullying, Misogyny, and Panic attacks/disorders
skudiklier's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship