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A review by fkshg8465
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
<strong>Blew me away</strong>
This was a very painful book to read in that there were some parallels to my life that I needed to re-examine.
A therapist once called my childhood traumatic, but I thought she was exaggerating. My family loved me, unlike the author’s parents. My family failed me often, but I thought that was normal. Now I know why the therapist said what she did - it was abnormal in this American life context, and it shouldn’t have been normal because that’s what immigrant life is about. While mine was extremely tame compared to what she went through, I recognize through her work where I need to be kinder to myself and my past. Wow. That’s what this book did for me.
That she’s an Asian immigrant saying all this made a huge difference for me too. Often, it felt like every therapist only got a little bit of what I was trying to say because they were White. Then I tried to find someone of color and met a couple Black women who got me a little better. Then I found an immigrant, she was also closer, but none of them could understand my specific Asian immigrant background. This woman who wrote this book, whom I’ve never met, she gets it! What a relief it was to read.
Will be reaching for this book many times over.
This was a very painful book to read in that there were some parallels to my life that I needed to re-examine.
A therapist once called my childhood traumatic, but I thought she was exaggerating. My family loved me, unlike the author’s parents. My family failed me often, but I thought that was normal. Now I know why the therapist said what she did - it was abnormal in this American life context, and it shouldn’t have been normal because that’s what immigrant life is about. While mine was extremely tame compared to what she went through, I recognize through her work where I need to be kinder to myself and my past. Wow. That’s what this book did for me.
That she’s an Asian immigrant saying all this made a huge difference for me too. Often, it felt like every therapist only got a little bit of what I was trying to say because they were White. Then I tried to find someone of color and met a couple Black women who got me a little better. Then I found an immigrant, she was also closer, but none of them could understand my specific Asian immigrant background. This woman who wrote this book, whom I’ve never met, she gets it! What a relief it was to read.
Will be reaching for this book many times over.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt