Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Génial, Ma Mère Est Morte ! by Jennette McCurdy

3182 reviews

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TL;DR Its an okay written summary of Jennette’s childhood and womanhood traumas. This book is not about her journey to healing but more of a declaration to start healing.

Honestly, this book was a slog for about the first 100 pages. While Jennette is young, her writing is simple. Its hard to engage with. As you read on she gets angrier, her thoughts are more complex. Its like her writing is aging with her, maturing as you turn the page. I really struggle with those first 100 pages. I felt disconnected from the trauma, kept at arms length. Then as we enter the teens and young adult phases of her life, I’m actually enjoying the book as she really dives deep into what shes feeling. Her writing isn’t groundbreaking buts its tolerable enough to no longer distract me from the actual content of the book.

There is a lot of emotions on display. Mostly anger, hopelessness, suicidal ideation, grief, emptiness. Something in Jennette’s story will be relatable to you as she goes through the universal and unique hardships of womanhood and childhood abuse. But at the end of the day those emotions are all thats here. This isn’t the journey of healing you think it is, but the declaration of the attempt to start healing.

There were times this book was down right boring. The trauma is not hard to read or harrowing like some reviewers say. But I also don’t see this as an entitles celebrity who’s just complaining as other reviewers think. It just kind of feels like life’s normal bullshit that happens to a lot of us. The abusive parent, the OCD, the body issues, the alcohol problems, issues with relationships and sex. These are not uniquely celebrity problems. Which is either gonna pull you in or bore you to tears.

The title and blurb really give you the whole picture all by itself. I think I could have skipped this one.

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Jennette McCurdy writes wonderfully. She’s straight-forward and honest, but also still adds warmth to her memoir in a way that’s hard to do with this amount of honesty. I have so much respect for her and everything she’s gone through. She’s a fighter and a survivor and she has my support. 

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I’m conflicted about my rating. On the one hand, Jennette is very vulnerable and shared so much about her personal life, which I really appreciate. On the other hand, the writing wasn’t anything spectacular and I feel like the book ended too soon. I wish she had waited a few years so she could tell more of her story in recovery/more introspection about her childhood. This book is less about her being a child actress and more about her narcissistic mother who influenced and abused her throughout her childhood. Lots of trigger warnings, lots of adult content, and definitely not for everyone. I think we all assume celebrities are at least a little messed up, but it’s amazing all that she went through and now she is healing. I think I’m not the target audience for this book, especially because I barely recognized her as an actress, but I think it was worth the read. As another reviewer said, I’m also glad her mom died.

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