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A review by pucksandpaperbacks
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
I received an ALC from LibroFm of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.
CW: Ableist slur and language, child abuse, emotional/physical/sexual abuse, cancer, death of a parent, loss/grief, schizophrenia/psychosis, anorexia, bulimia (graphic), mention of cheating, description of blood (related to bulimia), vomiting, alcoholism.
*There is also an instance where she uses outdated transphobic language.
This was a quick yet heavy read. I read this via audio in one day. I'm Glad My Mom Died goes through Jeanette's childhood as an actress from the age of six to age twenty-six. She talks graphically about her experiences with anorexia and bulimia as well as child abuse and sexual abuse. Please read with caution, if any of these are sensitive subjects for you.
I want to preface my review by saying I did enjoy this book. As a fan of iCarly and Jeanette's work, I'd been wanting to pick up her memoir. I think stories from child actors are important and need to be told to make the industry safer for other child stars coming in. It's a topic I'm passionate about and like learning about, so for that alone, this memoir did a great job sharing Jeanette's life events. It is an easy read and I do recommend the audio as it is narrated by her.
A big turn off for me was that the book has an ableist tone. Ableist language is used throughout the book including TWO instances of the r-word on page as she shares a memory with her mother and uses her mother's words. However, you could've easily written around that. There was no need to include this word.
The book could've been edited down more to make it more inclusive for a book that talks a lot about her mother's cancer.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and I think it was well done besides the qualms I had with it.
CW: Ableist slur and language, child abuse, emotional/physical/sexual abuse, cancer, death of a parent, loss/grief, schizophrenia/psychosis, anorexia, bulimia (graphic), mention of cheating, description of blood (related to bulimia), vomiting, alcoholism.
*There is also an instance where she uses outdated transphobic language.
This was a quick yet heavy read. I read this via audio in one day. I'm Glad My Mom Died goes through Jeanette's childhood as an actress from the age of six to age twenty-six. She talks graphically about her experiences with anorexia and bulimia as well as child abuse and sexual abuse. Please read with caution, if any of these are sensitive subjects for you.
I want to preface my review by saying I did enjoy this book. As a fan of iCarly and Jeanette's work, I'd been wanting to pick up her memoir. I think stories from child actors are important and need to be told to make the industry safer for other child stars coming in. It's a topic I'm passionate about and like learning about, so for that alone, this memoir did a great job sharing Jeanette's life events. It is an easy read and I do recommend the audio as it is narrated by her.
A big turn off for me was that the book has an ableist tone. Ableist language is used throughout the book including TWO instances of the r-word on page as she shares a memory with her mother and uses her mother's words. However, you could've easily written around that. There was no need to include this word.
The book could've been edited down more to make it more inclusive for a book that talks a lot about her mother's cancer.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and I think it was well done besides the qualms I had with it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol