A review by ebonyrose
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.75

 Stephanie Foo's memoir What My Bones Know details her painful, abusive childhood and her eventual understanding of a diagnosis of C-PTSD. This memoir was equal parts vulnerable and informative. I didn't know a lot about C-PTSD prior to reading this book, and Foo's memoir allowed me to learn about the condition in the context of her painful life as a child of abusive and neglectful parents, and an adult struggling to grapple with the effects of that. I appreciated Foo situating her abuse in a very specific cultural context (she is Chinese-American, but was born in Malaysia), and I appreciated the ways she discusses mental health challenges and how they might manifest differently in people of colour.

I am so impressed with Foo's courage and honesty, and how hard she has worked to understand herself, and to begin to heal. A very solid memoir. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Abandonment

Minor: Eating disorder and Alcohol