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oldandnewbooksmell's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Trigger Warnings: sexual abuse, false memory, inherited trauma, mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction
In this memoir of Alice Carrière, she tells the story of her unconventional upbringing in Greenwich Village as the daughter of renowned artist Jennifer Bartlett and European actor Mathieu Carrière. Growing up in the bohemian 90’s, Alice must navigate her mother’s recovered memories of ritualized sexual abuse that she turns into art, and her father’s odd and confusing attentions. For the most part, Alice is left alone with little-to-no enforcement of boundaries or supervision.
When she enters adolescence, Alice begins to lose herself as a dissociative disorder begins to take over. She bounces in and out of mental hospitals and takes up various roles around town while bouncing from one experience to another in a medicated state. Eventually, she finds purpose in caring for her Alzheimer’-afflicted mother. With the help of a recovering addict who loves her, Alice also finds the courage to confront her father, whose words and actions splintered her.
I haven’t read a lot of written memoirs (I’ve read a few graphic novel memoirs/biographies). But, this year I’m trying to make sure I branch out and read a different variety of genres. This one caught my eye because of the mental health aspect and growing up in the 90’s. Mental health and the stigma around it has drastically changed within the last few years. I grew up in the 90’s/00’s and I remember you didn’t talk about mental health - now I make jokes with my coworkers about our crippling depression/anxiety almost daily.
This memoir won’t be for everybody. Everything/Nothing/Someone deals with a lot of heavy subjects, but it is very thought-provoking and a look at how mental health was tackled and the stigma with it in the 90’s, early 2000’s.
*Thank you Spiegel & Grau, Publishers Weekly, and NetGalley for a digital advance copy of this memoir in exchange for an honest review
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death of parent, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Mental illness, and Dementia
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