sarah_reading_party 's review for:

Here Be Dragons: Treading the Deep Waters of Motherhood, Mean Girls, and Generational Trauma by Melanie Shankle

3.5

emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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i always enjoy memoirs - learning about someone's life and the events that made them who they are. in one sense, here be dragons was an excellent memoir. the author shared highs and lows in an engaging, interesting, and respectful way... with some humor too. that being said, there were some faith aspects of this book that i did not quite agree with. i'm sure some of this is theology and different nuanced beliefs, but at times i felt the author was simplifying how God uses/deals with/allows suffering, heartache, and trauma in our lives.... arguing that He uses these things to grow us and such. i do think this is true, but i also think there is more nuance than that and the approach used in the last few chapters of this book may have been better if more time was spent on this subject rather than throwing in some bible verses and quotes from beth moore. based on my personal experiences, these chapters were hard for me to read and seemed dismissive of hardship. i don't think that was what she meant necessarily, especially given the stories she shared of her life, but it came off the wrong way to me.

also, i do have to say that this book is not heavy on parenting or on parenting girls, so if you don't have kids or don't have girls, you may still like this book! i'm glad i read it, and may revisit the last few chapters again in the future but just sharing my initial impressions now.