Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot

38 reviews

fink1129's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Grief, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Incest, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

mayaism_01's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

This was gut punch, after gut punch, after gut punch. I feel like I’ve been shattered into a million little pieces and I will never recover from this. I don’t think I’ve ever been possessed with so much anger while reading a book. I loved this so much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Vomit, Eating disorder, and Abortion

stevia333k's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

3.5

usually I consider Adrienne Rich references to be an immediate DNF & didn't do so this time because it was only cited as an inspiration at the very end. In fact, the blurb my library gave in retrospect is basically trying to spin the Andrienne Rich influence -- that being said, besides some squicks, it was decent.

So this is by an author who wanted to challenge expectations about works written by indigenous authors. (I didn't pick up on how besides various marketable narratives -- i mean this in the way that both karl marx & the austrian school of economics are considered "controversial".)

Anyways, I read the book on the basis of family building & decolonization. The part about forgiveness being done in ceremonies instead of the white idea of "letting go", especially since I've struggled with that colonial dynamic too, except as a white settler I didn't have established ceremonies for context.

Admittedly I was kind of indifferent to the poetics I guess. The intersections were interesting enough.

in the interview at the end, there's 2 notes about influences on this book that the author mentions that explained the squicks I had with this book: 
- the bible (which went over my head because I'm not a Christian), 
- and Adrienne Rich (I already returned my copy of this book to the library & it was an audiobook, but the way the word "man" was used felt heteronormative & that "patriarchal" could've worked better. Like I think I figured it out via like argument from analogy with like settler vs indigenous & the fact she's mainly talking about 1 man in particular, but the lack of precision felt suspicious to me, and it turned out I was right.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Alcohol, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Incest, Infidelity, Ableism, Addiction, Medical content, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

spicycheesecake's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

Such a beautiful book. The writing is amazing, and the story being told is so captivating. I was immediately pulled in from the first page, and felt emotional the whole ride through.

There are many things I could not relate with, but I understood everything, and I felt like I was there -- spectating, watching, experiencing.

I've learned about myself and my own relationships just from seeing the perspectives in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Drug use, Death of parent, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Torture, Suicide attempt, Grief, Death, Violence, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Self harm, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, and Cursing

Moderate: Abortion

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

This book has won many awards for a reasons! Poetic and lyrical reflections filled with love, heartbreak, toxic relationships, darkness and the harsh realities of Teresa’s life as a Salish woman. I’ve never read a memoir quite like this one, that is written almost in prose, using beautiful language to portray such dark themes. This book might only be about 130 pages, but her story was so dense, that each sentence made me stop and reflect.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Self harm

Minor: Pregnancy

solenodon's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

4.5

Intense and poetic — will be re reading at some point. Trigger warning for sure 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Alcohol, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Abortion, Vomit, Eating disorder, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Racism, Sexual content, Child abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Self harm

clarabooksit's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Pregnancy, Eating disorder, Child abuse, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual violence, Alcohol, Colonisation, Grief, and Alcoholism

lauradvb's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Grief, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Racism, Gaslighting, and Death of parent

seeceeread's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad

💭 "Séliš stories are a lot like its art: sparse and interested in blank space; the work must be striking."

This is a torrent. Relentless, stream-of-conscious nonsequiturs circle back to each other. The book is a menacing bath of tales:

assault and need and love and violence and therapy and mothering and child separation and tenderness and despair and and and

. Mailhot seems to want to purge the hurt, to exorcise her uncertainty by naming: she has felt, craved, demanded, retreated. 

I winced to witness, to relive so intimately all that has sliced her.

The author nicks as she tells us of the small ladder she carved into her arm while pregnant.

Like her girlhood self, we are coaxed and cornered into small spaces with the grotesque, wondering if it's safe to speak, to look away. I wanted to hold her at times, a quiet listener as an irregular heartbeat sang of heartache. At others, I wanted to run away, to commit violence against her selfish lover and to snap her into nonchalance. These whiplashes of emotion and intention mirror hers, further evidence she submerged me.

💭 "The tips of your fingers felt like wet grapes. I wanted to bite every one."

Expect to be nipped.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Violence, Abandonment, Classism, Colonisation, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide, and Child abuse

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Classism

stevie's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Incest, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexism, Self harm, Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Grief, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Racism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Colonisation