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riversnowdrop's reviews
287 reviews
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
3.75
This book made me feel a lot. But it was also quite hard to follow the story, used A LOT of ableist language that irked me to the point of distraction (even if to some it would be considered “of its time” to use the r slur), and I also have my own ethical questions around using the photos of the person falling from the towers and projecting a narrative onto that. Idk!
What Have I Done?: An honest memoir about surviving post-natal mental illness by Laura Dockrill
3.0
Abridged version of some of my critiques of this book (note: I enjoyed my experience of reading it - all in one sitting - and do think it holds valuable insight into the experience of someone with post-partum psychosis):
-There were some stereotypes/straight up blunders around the topic of mental health in a general sense that stood out in what was otherwise a personal account (for example saying someone “is” bipolar rather than “has”)
-Sometimes I think people say mental illness is invisible because then they don’t have to look at it (or go to the effort of recognising it)
-The blanket praise of the institution she stayed in rubbed me the wrong way; the fact that we “need” places like that is, to me, a disgusting indictment of the lack of understanding of differing brains in a capitalist-driven, hyper-independent, empathy-lacking western society
-“How people live with this illness for long periods of time, I will never know.” - about depression. And that’s the crux of my critique. The author is writing from the perspective of the UK’s Ideal Mental Illness Patient: someone who experiences acute mental suffering and is largely aided by medication and a course of CBT. Someone who never has to reckon with the fact that the way the world and the mental health services in this country are set up just isn’t for you. I don’t think this book would be comforting to those experiencing more long-term mental health or trauma issues.
That’s not to say it isn’t helpful: it is a book for the masses, a book to placate the call for mentally ill voices in media without shaking the table or questioning anything that could dismantle this neat little illusion that nothing needs changing on a structural level. Which is to say, maybe I’m done with mental health books/memoirs that don’t acknowledge the wider connectivity of it all. Maybe I’m just looking for something a bit more radical.
-There were some stereotypes/straight up blunders around the topic of mental health in a general sense that stood out in what was otherwise a personal account (for example saying someone “is” bipolar rather than “has”)
-Sometimes I think people say mental illness is invisible because then they don’t have to look at it (or go to the effort of recognising it)
-The blanket praise of the institution she stayed in rubbed me the wrong way; the fact that we “need” places like that is, to me, a disgusting indictment of the lack of understanding of differing brains in a capitalist-driven, hyper-independent, empathy-lacking western society
-“How people live with this illness for long periods of time, I will never know.” - about depression. And that’s the crux of my critique. The author is writing from the perspective of the UK’s Ideal Mental Illness Patient: someone who experiences acute mental suffering and is largely aided by medication and a course of CBT. Someone who never has to reckon with the fact that the way the world and the mental health services in this country are set up just isn’t for you. I don’t think this book would be comforting to those experiencing more long-term mental health or trauma issues.
That’s not to say it isn’t helpful: it is a book for the masses, a book to placate the call for mentally ill voices in media without shaking the table or questioning anything that could dismantle this neat little illusion that nothing needs changing on a structural level. Which is to say, maybe I’m done with mental health books/memoirs that don’t acknowledge the wider connectivity of it all. Maybe I’m just looking for something a bit more radical.
The Third Self: Poems about Creative Identity by Salem Paige
5.0
Salem is incredible. This collection spoke to me both as a writer and as someone who believes in transcending the rigidity of “normal”, expected human experience and leaning more into fluidity, change.
I felt so seen in this book. From the very beginning I felt challenged to write, I felt called in to the creative process. Salem does this amazing thing wherein their personal becomes communal, it doesn’t feel shut off or egotistical or indulgent, they simply write truths and we see ourselves in them. I admire so much their use of form and structure and the ways in which each work shifts, and is allowed to do so.
I saved so many of these poems to re-read later, but I want to highlight one in particular that resonated: ‘in a name’. As a trans non-binary person, very much still working things out on my gender *journey*, this poem gave me comfort, gave me hope, gave me permission. Thank you Salem, thank you.
I felt so seen in this book. From the very beginning I felt challenged to write, I felt called in to the creative process. Salem does this amazing thing wherein their personal becomes communal, it doesn’t feel shut off or egotistical or indulgent, they simply write truths and we see ourselves in them. I admire so much their use of form and structure and the ways in which each work shifts, and is allowed to do so.
I saved so many of these poems to re-read later, but I want to highlight one in particular that resonated: ‘in a name’. As a trans non-binary person, very much still working things out on my gender *journey*, this poem gave me comfort, gave me hope, gave me permission. Thank you Salem, thank you.
Remembered by Yvonne Battle-Felton
2.0
Waaay too much reliance on dialogue to tell the story; so many indistinguishable characters constantly introduced so I couldn’t connect with them; the “flashback” format is a complete miss and just muddles the story rather than enhancing it; and, like other reviewers have already pointed out, it feels as though I was mis-sold on the premise of the book. I just didn’t care about any of the characters or the plot and really had to force myself to finish, skim-reading to get through. I would say around page 200 it picked up just enough for me to keep going but that first 200 pages are a complete slog.
(Also: the graphic rape scene that was just uncomfortable to read and felt unnecessarily explicit; it seemed to fall more on the side of voyeuristic trauma porn than actually adding anything to the character’s backstory/eliciting empathy etc.)
(Also also, can’t help but compare this to ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison, which I read recently, and was fantastic. Felt like this book was trying somewhat to be that and didn’t make it.)