Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones

13 reviews

mirandalikesbooks's review

challenging emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

3.5

I've never read a memoir of someone who isn't a well-known public figure. It was interesting learning his story at this personal level of introspection.

I would read this if you're interested in the impact your family has on your identity; the intersectionality of being gay, black, and poor; or the struggle of figuring out how to act when the world is telling you to be someone else.

I guess I finished the book hoping for more resolution - why did his mom act cagey when he came out? How will he approach his relationship with his grandma? Will he learn how to be happy with himself and live authentically instead of approaching life the selfish and guarded way he approached his college years?

Overall a decent read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Grief, Alcohol, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death of parent, and Drug use

Minor: Animal death

julian7's review

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Racism, and Homophobia

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Animal death

amerikanerin's review

sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Death, Violence, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Adult/minor relationship, and Homophobia

jouljet's review

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Car accident, Homophobia, Death of parent, and Racism

auudrey's review

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Car accident, and Death of parent

redrosemoth's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Sexual content

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Grief, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Medical content

Minor: Drug use, Racial slurs, and Suicidal thoughts

katielaine_w's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Terminal illness

Minor: Drug abuse, Animal death, and Alcohol

armontheroad's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

I truly cannot put into words how deeply incredible this memoir is!! This was raw and deeply personal. Saeed Jones narrates his audiobook, which in my opinion, amplified the experience. It baffled me how Jones was able to discuss so much hardship whilst somehow managing to keep the book light and funny at points. By the time I got to the end, I could not stop crying. The writing is just brilliant! At the end of the day, this memoir is a love letter to his mother who passed away after being terminally ill for years. It is about the relationship the two of them had, about his life growing up Black and gay, about the religious abuse he suffered throughout his life. It’s a story about family and trauma. I do not recommend it lightly. Please take my trigger warnings into consideration before reading and to ensure the protection of your mental health I suggest doing additional research into trigger warnings beforehand!

CWs/TWs: suicide, racism, hate crime, homophobia, religious bigotry, child abuse, sexual content, pedophilia, childhood sexual assault, RuPaul reference, chronic illness, medical content, death of a parent, grief, rape, murder (minor), fetishization, car accident, physical assault, animal death, eye gore, etc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Medical content, Physical abuse, Animal death, Death of parent, Grief, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Suicide, Racism, Homophobia, and Rape

Minor: Murder

meemawreads's review against another edition

challenging hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

My 2022 goal is to read more prose by poets 🤩
At the risk of aging and geotagging my former self, Saeed Jones and I went to the same college and our time there overlapped by a couple years. I’m not bragging because I never met him, but my being present on that campus for part of the events of this memoir made it VERY real for me in a way others might not connect to. Saeed grew up Black, gay and poor in Texas, raised by a single Buddhist mom. His recounting of the moments that strained his relationship with his Christian grandmother are heartmelting. He captures the struggle of feeling alone and overwhelmed as a young adult in ways that are both universal and specific to being vulnerable as a gay Black man. The ending is so moving (I won’t spoil it) and throughout you can feel the poetry in his descriptions of feelings and relationships. I loved it, 5 taters! 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔/🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Sexual violence

Moderate: Chronic illness and Death

marabdelmageed's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, and Cursing