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A review by crystaltran
Making a Scene by Constance Wu
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
i had no idea Constance was such a beautiful writer, but reading this memoir felt a lot like reading poetry a lot of the time. it was a really wonderful recount of her life story, with a lot of focus on her theatre background, love life, and her life pre-fame. i thought there would be more detail/stories about her life after becoming famous but she mostly passed over that topic in order to talk about bigger themes in those moments of her life which i honestly really appreciated because it made her seem more relatable to the average reader.
there’s a lot of difficult and personal topics included in this memoir. a lot of chapters recount her struggles with her womanhood, pursuing the arts, struggling with her emotions and trying to suppress them, and experiencing sexual harassment/assault. there’s a lot of sensitive topics spoken about, but i thought they were handled really well and talked about in such an intelligent and deep way. a lot of her struggles with these experiences were so relatable and real even if i haven’t personally experienced the same thing that she writes about.
i really enjoyed reading this memoir, both for the actual writing style and the stories included. constance is a really gifted writer and i honestly hope she releases more writing in the future. i generally feel odd rating memoirs anything less than 5 stars because who am i to judge someone’s personal life story, but i did take away a star only because (and this is mainly from an editing perspective) a lot of the chapters felt disjointed. it’s not told in chronological order, not that it needs to be, but the order in which the chapters are don’t have much of a flow and makes reading some things a little difficult with the continuity and generally lowered the quality of reading. the last chapter especially didn’t really feel right as the last chapter- i would’ve just tweaked the order in which the chapters were presented, but otherwise, this is a really wonderful yet vulnerable read.
there’s a lot of difficult and personal topics included in this memoir. a lot of chapters recount her struggles with her womanhood, pursuing the arts, struggling with her emotions and trying to suppress them, and experiencing sexual harassment/assault. there’s a lot of sensitive topics spoken about, but i thought they were handled really well and talked about in such an intelligent and deep way. a lot of her struggles with these experiences were so relatable and real even if i haven’t personally experienced the same thing that she writes about.
i really enjoyed reading this memoir, both for the actual writing style and the stories included. constance is a really gifted writer and i honestly hope she releases more writing in the future. i generally feel odd rating memoirs anything less than 5 stars because who am i to judge someone’s personal life story, but i did take away a star only because (and this is mainly from an editing perspective) a lot of the chapters felt disjointed. it’s not told in chronological order, not that it needs to be, but the order in which the chapters are don’t have much of a flow and makes reading some things a little difficult with the continuity and generally lowered the quality of reading. the last chapter especially didn’t really feel right as the last chapter- i would’ve just tweaked the order in which the chapters were presented, but otherwise, this is a really wonderful yet vulnerable read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content