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A review by jj2020
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
5.0
This brilliant memoir recounts Jennette McCurdy’s upbringing and life as a child star under her mother’s abusive and narcissistic spell from the perspective of Jennette as a child. We experience her mother’s abuse through her eyes, a guileless girl who loves and wants to please her primary caretaker, and walks through life under and ONLY under her mother’s wishes.
To avoid spoilers, I won’t detail her life here. Suffice it to say, Jennette, a Nickelodeon star in her teens, did not want to be an actress, but she did want to please her mother, who was also suffering from cancer at this time.
Once Jennette’s mother died, and only then, was she able to recognize the hold her mother had on her and all of the coping mechanisms that resulted. We get to experience with her the excruciating recovery from alcoholism and eating disorders, and see her emerge as a self-actualized adult.
The brilliance of this memoir, to me, is the clarity with which she describes her life through her own eyes at the time the events were happening. I admire Jennette for being so brave and unflinching as she looks back, and for emerging from her childhood and young adulthood with her eyes open wide and her humor intact.
But this book is not funny. Please stop calling it funny.
To avoid spoilers, I won’t detail her life here. Suffice it to say, Jennette, a Nickelodeon star in her teens, did not want to be an actress, but she did want to please her mother, who was also suffering from cancer at this time.
Once Jennette’s mother died, and only then, was she able to recognize the hold her mother had on her and all of the coping mechanisms that resulted. We get to experience with her the excruciating recovery from alcoholism and eating disorders, and see her emerge as a self-actualized adult.
The brilliance of this memoir, to me, is the clarity with which she describes her life through her own eyes at the time the events were happening. I admire Jennette for being so brave and unflinching as she looks back, and for emerging from her childhood and young adulthood with her eyes open wide and her humor intact.
But this book is not funny. Please stop calling it funny.