Reviews with content warning for Self harm - Being Lolita: A Memoir

Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Being Lolita: A Memoir by Alisson Wood

34 reviews

laurenvoice's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

Being Lolita: a memoir is brave, raw and emotional.

Giving this memoir anything less than five stars would be an insult. Alisson Wood bared her heart and soul in telling her story of power and abuse. Wood beautifully intertwined her story with Nabokov's story Lolita.

Part i was about grooming and emotional manipulation.

Part ii was about emotional and physical abuse.

Part iii was about discovering the truth, breaking the cycles and patterns of being in abusive relationships, and relearning what love is. Part iii spoke about the language used in stories to manipulate the reader, like in Lolita.

In this memoir, Wood made reference to Disney princesses: Ariel, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty; all these girls, portrayed as young and vulnerable, needing a "grown man", their prince, to save them. There were references to Alice in Alice in Wonderland, who was a child, small and vulnerable. And there were references to Lolita, Dolores Haze, a young girl, a child abused by an adult man, described as the seductress, as the one with all the power. When in fact, it was Humbert with all the power. Just like Alisson, she never had the power in her story; she was vulnerable and preyed upon; the teacher held all the power, and he used language and stories to manipulate her.

Being Lolita: a memoir is an emotional but empowering read. To understand the references made within this book, I would recommend reading Lolita by Nabokov. However, Wood does a spectacular job of speaking about the use of language used by Nabokov to manipulate the reader. Being Lolita: a memoir is an essential read.

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ivanaestaba's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

read my dark vanessa prior to this and they definitely go hand in hand with each other, obviously check trigger warnings but still i would definitely recommend. i am so moved by this book, alisson wood has such a way with words!

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librarymouse's review against another edition

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emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

Alisson Wood's accounts of her youth and struggles with mental health are incredibly tangible and relatable. The way she writes, weaving the narrative of how she was told to perceive her being groomed by her teacher, with the reality of the situation and the storyline in the novel Lolita make for very engaging storytelling without trivializing the memories and issues she explores. To use Lolita as a lense, framed as a love story, through which to view their relationship and then recommend Alisson go to school for English implies that Nick Norris either profoundly stupid or incredibly vain.

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thebookpaiges's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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peytonliveslife's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

the parallels to my dark vanessa in this book are disturbing. having read mdv first, it feels as if it was modeled around the life of alisson wood. this book hurt so badly but was so—i cannot emphasize enough—important. this should be required reading for everyone.

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softdisorder's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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bernieem's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

This was Allison's memoir - about her "love story" that she had with her teacher in high school, to later when she realises that this wasn't a love story. This memoir gave me a perspective on how grooming and abuse can happen.

"Beauty plus pity, is the closest we will get to art"

I found her perspective and thoughts as a teenager really interesting - we get to see why this happened, how she was groomed. She wanted to be understood and heard, especially considering her history with depression and mental illness, and how people perceived her. At the time it felt like the teacher was the only one who saw her, and maybe that's what enticed her and fought to get his attention so much in high school. It was disturbing to see how the teacher manipulated her with his words, actions, and how he made her think that the abusive relationship in Lolita was a love story that reflected theirs as well.

It was inspiring to learn that she ended up teaching young girls later to teach them what a healthy relationship is. Her re-reading Lolita and slowly realising over time that the relationship she had with the teacher was abusive was really fascinating. I got a lot of insight from this.

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