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A review by katsbooks
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
“Being healed isn’t about feeling nothing. Being healed is about feeling the appropriate emotions at the appropriate times and still being able to come back to yourself. That’s just life.”
“Over and over, the answer is the same, isn’t it? Love, love, love. The salve and the cure. In order to become a better person, I had to do something utterly unintuitive. I had to reject the idea that punishing myself would solve the problem. I had to find the love.”
“Here’s a theory: Maybe I had not really been broken this whole time. Maybe I had been a human—flawed and still growing but full of light nonetheless”
This was a fantastic memoir. If you are in any way interested in mental health or trauma, you would probably find this a really illuminating text. I feel like I know a bit about PTSD going into reading this and I learned so much about Complex PTSD through my reading. I didn't realize that CPTSD was even a diagnosis and I'm glad that this memoir is out there raising awareness of it.
I felt like the writing was really excellent. I ended up essentially binging the whole second half of the book. Foo's entire journey was so compelling, it was hard to put the book down. She also included chapters on intergenerational trauma and the trauma of the immigrant experience, specifically the Asian immigrant experience. As someone who works with a lot of immigrant students, it was really insightful to read her thoughts and research. I, of course, know that many of my students encounter trauma but some of the perspectives she brought up were helpful to note.
Obviously, this entire memoir is about trauma so be aware going in. However, it is excellently written and researched. I would highly recommend.
“Over and over, the answer is the same, isn’t it? Love, love, love. The salve and the cure. In order to become a better person, I had to do something utterly unintuitive. I had to reject the idea that punishing myself would solve the problem. I had to find the love.”
“Here’s a theory: Maybe I had not really been broken this whole time. Maybe I had been a human—flawed and still growing but full of light nonetheless”
This was a fantastic memoir. If you are in any way interested in mental health or trauma, you would probably find this a really illuminating text. I feel like I know a bit about PTSD going into reading this and I learned so much about Complex PTSD through my reading. I didn't realize that CPTSD was even a diagnosis and I'm glad that this memoir is out there raising awareness of it.
I felt like the writing was really excellent. I ended up essentially binging the whole second half of the book. Foo's entire journey was so compelling, it was hard to put the book down. She also included chapters on intergenerational trauma and the trauma of the immigrant experience, specifically the Asian immigrant experience. As someone who works with a lot of immigrant students, it was really insightful to read her thoughts and research. I, of course, know that many of my students encounter trauma but some of the perspectives she brought up were helpful to note.
Obviously, this entire memoir is about trauma so be aware going in. However, it is excellently written and researched. I would highly recommend.