Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Who Is Wellness For?: An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who It Leaves Behind by Fariha Róisín

22 reviews

bookishmillennial's review

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

Coming back to write a full review, but this was absolutely phenomenal. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Self harm, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Racism, Mental illness, and Cultural appropriation

elissam1330's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual assault, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, and Pedophilia

psammophilus's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

This book is surprisingly heavy. I found that I'm glad that I read it, but it really required me to be in the right kind of headspace. I would pause before recommending this book to others and STRONGLY suggest that folks check the content warnings before proceeding.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Suicide, Self harm, and Sexual assault

gizellereads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Medical trauma, Incest, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Fatphobia, and Abortion

knick_nat's review

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Abortion, Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Sexual assault

georgeryang's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Sexual violence

ashstrong172's review

slow-paced

2.5

This book started off strong, but never really made its point. I had hoped for an in-depth analysis of the ways in which wellness culture intersects with race and class, and Róisín did touch on this. However, the majority of the book was about her personal trauma and the search for "wellness" that came after it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Drug use, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, and Sexual harassment

aubreystrawberry's review

More of a trauma memoir with occasional critiques of the overall wellness industrial complex- not really what i’m looking for rn. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Sexual assault, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

zaraven's review

emotional informative sad slow-paced

2.5

like others wrote, this book is more of a trauma memoir than a critique or analysis of wellness culture, and in it, Roisin locates their own experiences within existing literature on trauma and post traumatic stress rather than critiquing the ways that trauma is conceptualized in the Global North (eg hyper individualized, often located in the mother or parent, focused on recovery, etc). i resonated with some of it, a lot of it felt repetitive, some things were contradictory without much explanation (eg opening with recognizing that forgiveness is not always helpful or necessary - which I appreciated - and then closing by emphasizing the value of forgiveness without sharing much about how they got there or how they hold both), and mostly generalizing the author’s own personal experiences and offering a partial analysis that left me wanting more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Self harm, Incest, Child abuse, and Colonisation

katharina90's review

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

2.5

This book is first and foremost a memoir and describes the author's abusive childhood and how her lived experience has informed her views on "wellness". 

This book is not an in-depth critique of the wellness industry in the West with all its harmful cultural appropriation, classism, fatphobia, capitalist overconsumption, etc. 

You can catch glimpses of many those critiques but the author only scratches the surface and frequently relies on quotes from others to get her point across which makes her analysis feel unoriginal.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Body shaming, Self harm, and Sexual violence

Minor: Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, and Racism