#read 2022

[fairyinpages]

2022 reads ⋆ the cruel prince by holly black ♡

“most of all, i hate you because i think of you. often. it's disgusting and i can't stop.”

for my honest reaction and rating, check out my goodreads.

#♡ #2022 reads #read in 2022 #read 2022 #the cruel prince #the folk of the air #holly black #jude duarte #cardan greenbriar #jude and cardan #aesthetic #book aesthetic #moodboard #book moodboard #moodboard aesthetic #messy moodboard #pinterest #pinterest moodboard #pinterest aesthetic #books #reading #books and reading #quotes #book quotes #book review #review #bookblr #booklr

[bruiselikeviolets]

read in 2022: the diviners by libba bray

Why does anyone do anything? Belief. A belief that they are right and just in their actions. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac, because he believed that God had commanded it. To kill your son is unthinkable. A crime. But if you are acting in the belief that your God, your supreme deity whom you must obey, has demanded it of you, is it still a crime?

#the diviners #thedivinersedit #divinersedit #litedit #yaedit #stuff #read 2022

[date-prisa-estamos-leyendo]

Incluso las despedidas necesitan un ritual para poder asimilar la ausencia futura.

Lo que hay, Sara Torres.

#lo que hay #sara torres #read 2022 #frases libros #frases literatura #frases literarias #libros #literatura #leo autoras

[booksandwords]

'Twas the Night Before Pride by Joanna McClintick. Illustrated by Juana Medina

Age Recommendation: Pre-School/Kinder Topic/ Theme: Pride, LGBTQ+ Rights Setting: Generic American City, New York City

Rating: 5/5

I would honestly give this 5🌟 for originality alone, who would have thought of combining Christmas and Pride? 🎄🎼 +🏳️‍🌈= 💖

I love this it's just cute and fun and a great way to introduce pride to young children, especially those with queer parents. It includes Stonewall and the importance of Pride (both the parade and the concept/emotion). Everything is wonderfully in line The Night Before Christmas, a rhyme and meter children and adults will be familiar with making it easy to read out loud (as intended). Medina's illustrations are so nice. They are playful and always give the reader something to point out, look for. While this is a book about pride, I do about the choice not to go overboard on the Pride flags. There are a lot of Pride flags, yes, but not obnoxiously so or at least I don't think so. I really like the outfits that Medina has chosen for her characters they are lovely, and great choices, particularly for the adorable protagonist. The end pages are beautifully coloured. Unsurprisingly rainbow, it's a soft rainbow not watercolour but something akin to it. This background is covered by outlines of people. A diverse arrangement of people, all them implied to be queer or allies.

Basically, this is just super cute and I recommend it to readers who like queer books. No one says you have to be queer or a child to enjoy this. In some ways reading picture story as an adult is even more fun. It's just all colour and cute.

#twas the night before pride #joaana mcclintick #juana medina #lgbtqia+ #book review #ktreviews #booklr #read 2022

[the-loverboy-poet-no73]

Books & Annotations

#dark academia #books #literature #chaotic academia #dark academia aesthetic #dark academic #reading #book annotations #read 2022 #tbr #annotated books #annotating books #the secret history #tsh #Joan Didion #book aesthetic #reading reccomendations #fall reads #autumn reading

[foxounderscorecube]

They/Them/Their: A Guide to Nonbinary and Genderqueer Identities - Eris Young

4 ⭐

This is a pretty good overview of the various complexities of non-binary genders and their implications at this point in time.

Being a non-binary person who tries to keep somewhat on top of the current queer discourse, a lot of the information in here wasn't especially new to me in itself, but it was still interesting and informative. The writing style is academic, but terminology is explained well and I feel like it's probably still accessible for most people.

I feel like, if you're questioning your gender, or if you want to get your head around non-binary genders to better understand others, this is worth reading. It also contains a lot of references and resources, which is good!

#read 2022 #reviewed 2022 #books #non fiction #queer lit #reading #review

[the-sums-not-counted]

By the Book by Jasmine Guillory

By the Book by Jasmine Guillory

RATING: 5/5 SYNOPSIS: Izzy feels stuck at work and at home. She hasn’t received the promotion she so desperately deserves and she can’t afford to move out of her parents’ home, so when an opportunity to advance herself by getting the first draft of celebrity Beau Chambers’ memoir is presented to her, Izzy can’t help but seize it. The only problem is that Beau is a recluse and isn’t willing to…

View On WordPress

#beauty and the beast #beauty and the beast retelling #book review #Books #by the book #fairytale retelling #june 2022 #meant to be series #read 2022 #romance

[j3mcarsta1rs]

currently reading : babel by r.f. kuang

definitely going to reread this and annotate all my silly little thoughts

#molbrary #booksbooksbooks #bookblr #babel #babel an arcane history #babel rf kuang #rf kuang #currently reading #reading #read 2022 #robin swift

[elusivemellifluence]

Read 2022

We've reached the wonderful time of year where I make graphs analysing my reading habits like I'm some sort of science experiment.

In 2022 I read 102 books / 30,760 pages.

Keep reading for much, much more detail.

(My charts look less spiffy this year because I switched to a different chart making tool. This one doesn't let me customise colours. But the prettier options I found had the infuriating habit of just leaving out the data labels if a chart got unwieldy, and did not have an option I could select for "if you can't fit them on the chart itself, use a key". I picked function over aesthetic.)

First, and I can't believe I never thought to do this before, here is a graph of my total books over each year since I started tracking.

My lowest book count so far this year. But to be fair, I also wrote over 50,000 words of fic and started learning Mandarin Chinese. Plus my mum died and I could barely read for weeks.

And here is a similar graph of my total pagecounts.

The Books

The majority of my reading (62%) was in the form of ebooks, followed by paperbacks, audiobooks and hardbacks. It's pretty much the exact same proportion as last year.

This year most of the books I read were my own (70%), with the rest borrowed from the library. It was a more even split last year.

The longest book I read was The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee at 592 pages. The shortest was The Future God of Love by Dilman Dila at 55 pages. The average length was 301 pages.

This is my average book length over the years. Not a whole lot of variation, but this year was the lowest so far at 301 and 2015 was the highest at 356.

The oldest book I read was The Art of War by Sun Tzu, originally published around 450BC. The most recent was The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik, published 23 September 2022. Most of the books I read were from the 2020s and 2010s.

My average rating was 3.9/5. There were 15 five star books, which is fewer than last year, and the lowest rating was a single 2. There's a much bigger gap this time between the number of four star books (57) and three star books (22). I was trying to move away from the mindset that DNF (did not finish) is the ultimate sign of disdain, because it made me feel kind of obligated to finish a lot of solidly average books because I didn't actually hate them. This year there were a bunch of books where I was like "I could keep reading this and it probably won't be bad. Or, I could stop reading right now and probably not regret it." Often, I did, and so I ended up with a lower proportion of 3 star reads.

The vast majority of books were new reads, not rereads.

My favourite genre is (as always) fantasy, followed by historical fiction, science fiction, nonfiction and romance, with a few mystery, horror and contemporary, and a handful of magic realism, literary fiction and thriller.

I read mostly adult books (72), and some young adult (21) and children's (9). I also read some baby/toddler books for babies/toddlers I know, but didn't record them for my stats. I really liked Sometimes Cake by Edwina Wyatt and I'm Not Cute! by Jonathon Allen.

It's my second year keeping track of the original language my books were written in, with a vague goal of 'some translated works'. 95 of the books were written in English, but I also read some translated from Japanese, Chinese, Portugese, Spanish and Swedish.

The Authors

Most of the authors (63) were cis women. I said last year that I'd aim to read more by trans and nonbinary authors but didn't end up doing that. I'll give it another go next year.

(The key couldn't quite fit in the stupid image, Ukraine should be listed after Hungary (also with 1 author))

The American hegemony is evident as always, but hey, this time it's just barely over 50%, that's something! And Australia was the second most common nationality, which is nice for me as an Aussie.

In my fifth year of aiming to read two authors of colour for every white author, that ratio is still going strong.

The Protagonists

Like with the authors, the majority of protagonists were cis women. Also like with the authors, I was aiming for a higher proportion of trans/nonbinary characters this year and didn't end up getting there. (I did read some short story anthologies with lots of trans characters, but that doesn't show up in the stats because short stories collections have too many characters to count for these purposes.) Oh well, I'll try again next year.

More protagonists were people of colour than not. That's nice. There was also one character whose race/appearance was never described, and three where the question of "is this character a person of colour?" can't really be answered in a meaningful way (a dragon, an alien and a wolf).

I'm thrilled to announce that straight protagonists are not the majority! At 44%, they're outnumbered by queer or indeterminate characters.

#read 2022

[stil-lindigo]

the machine.

a comic about being a 'creator' online.

creative notes:

#in light of recent online 'success' i feel like this may come off as ungrateful #just wanna say that all the comics i make in this series are written about experiences i felt in 2022 #which was a rough year personally and creatively #and i very luckily don't feel this way anymore #and this also isnt to shame anyone who DOES feel this way #its easy to start to feel like all you are is a vending machine of art #and like thats all you are to people #theres nothing human to you #it can be a bit of a pit #and on some level this damage is self inflicted but social media really doesnt help that feeling #this wont work for everyone but having friends around you who you can talk to about stuff that ISNT art #going outside for dinner #maybe walking around #its good for when you need that feeling to go away even a bit temporarily #youre a human being #not a mindless content creation machine #and i hope anyone who feels like this now can get to a place where they have a healthier relationship with their own work #good luck to all of you #and thank you for reading #comic art #its 10pm #stillindigo art

[wanton-votaress]

So I got into an argument with one of my colleagues and they had the worst insult I’ve ever seen. While I was trying to explain that I was busy doing something else, they thought I was being lazy and decided to exclaim: “You probably want to go home and read a fantasy novel!”… um yes? Yes I do, that sounds nice thank you? Like how pathetic do you have to be to use READING as an insult? He said it like I was a witch, my guy, it seems like you’d have more luck trying to drown me, since this “burning” you’re trying to do isn’t working.

#do some ppl not want to go home and read pjo 24/7? #reading #read 2022 #read 2023 #story time #like wtf #bookworm #bookish #bookaddict #booknerd #bookblr #books and reading #bookaholic #books & libraries #my thoughts on a page

[bruiselikeviolets]

read in 2022: book of night by holly black

“I am a good enough thief to steal a shadow from a tower," she told him. "I can steal back your heart.”

#book of night #holly black #bookedit #litedit #read 2022 #books 2022 #stuff #this kind of smacked not gonna lie

[date-prisa-estamos-leyendo]

Tal vez soy incapaz de entregarme porque deseo demasiado.

Lo que hay, Sara Torres.

#lo que hay #sara torres #read 2022 #frases libros #frases literatura #frases literarias #libros #literatura #leo autoras #deseo

[booksandwords]

100 Tales from Australia’s Most Haunted Places by Ben Pobjie

Read time: 4 Days Rating: 5/5 Stars

The quote: For as long as human beings have been dying, they have been turning into ghosts. Or maybe they haven't. That's the great thing about ghosts: nobody knows if they're real, so they are endlessly entertaining, like Bigfoot or Elon Musk. — Introduction

Warnings: We are talking ghosts here and it often takes bad stuff to create a ghost. So some warnings: death, murder, suicide, torture, racism, classism and ableism. Among possibly other things.

Okay, I should probably start with where I stand on ghosts real or not. My stance on ghosts basically comes down to a quote from a book "I'm not sure whether I believe in ghosts, but two centuries worth of suffering has to leave a mark." (Billy, The Little Wartime Library). In Australia's case, it's not two centuries our Anglo-Saxon history doesn't go back that far but the point stands. Essentially I'm not above believing in ghosts because of human suffering.

I'm very glad I read this. Ben Pobjie has a fantastic sense of humour (he is a comedian, so massive shock that), and that sense of humour lands in all the right places to keep the mood where it should be. Some of these tales are truly dark, the humour is necessary to lighten to mood. Though I did find myself wondering what was with the (joking) hate on Tassie, and to a lesser degree South Australia. Don't get me wrong I laughed but I found myself curious. I found this to be quite informative in its own way. I have an interest in anthropology and this scratches that itch. It tells stories of everyday people and even ghosts are a part of that field. Some warnings for content death and murder are possibly to be expected in a book about ghosts, it takes death to create a ghost and suicide and torture are others that may be unsurprising. Other warnings that might be less obvious include racism (because you know Australia), classism (because British Empire) and ableism (because 19th century everything). Ben Pobjie is not an author I'd read before, though I do want to read more.

I appreciate the introduction it sets the tone and engages the reader. Pobjie gives his potential reasons for the belief in ghosts. They're pretty on point. The first entry is important, it is the one that grabs the reader and sets the tone. Nurse Kerry, about Aradale Lunatic Asylum, is the right choice. She is perfectly distressing. Not that her patients are sunshine and rainbows. The Bushranger Hotel feels like an odd choice to end on. But it does reference something Australia is known for, Bushrangers (in specific Ben Hall and Jack Dunn) and leaves the reader with a friendly and helpful ghost in the Quirks. The two of them are the right kind of entries to bookend the book. They balance well asylums and pubs are both common in the book, even more so when you look at them as a place of incarceration vs a place of rest and relaxation. I did find it to be quite well organised. The places that had multiple entries were spread out, the types of ghosts are varied and not repetitive in their order. Each chapter is two or three pages long with a relevant title, either the ghosts name, the location or a joke, under that is the geographic location by town and state. If the location isn't in the title it is usually in one of the first two paragraphs. It all just works so well.

Some quotes and comments. It's not for all of them but there are quite a few.

• Frederick Carr was hanged in 1929 at Adelaide Gaol. He's an oddly jovial ghost despite the injustices against him. He was hanged for the murder of his wife Maud. He's presentation has changed over time. Going from faceless to having a face and no one knows why. I just like that he's not angry.

• There is an intriguing dichotomy to the young ladies of Young & Jackson's the nameless ghost and Chloé. One is highly celebrated and prized while the other is nameless, lost and alone.

• The former denizens of the old convict settlement close in around you, insistent and suffocating, as soon as you arrive. If you can't hear them, you can feel them: the souls of thousands of the tortured, the abused and the murdered. The very air is weighted and perfumed with the pain and anger and sadness of a place built specifically to inflict those things. — I love this quote okay it's just so visceral. I like the way Port Arthur is managed. There are only a couple of brief examples. It feels like a yeah of course there are bloody ghosts here. It was a place of death and misery. (p.11, Ghosts of Port Arthur). Much the same thing is done with The North Head Quarantine Station, though there the story of the Gravedigger's cottage.

• There is something highly amusing about Pobjie not rant exactly but a paragraph that could have gone there about darkrooms being extremely spooky. I had never thought of it.

• Late one night, early in his residence, Bishop Trower awoke to find his bedroom awash with an unearthly light. The illumination emanated from a man who had, rather impolitely, entered his bedchamber without so much as a by-your-leave. — In the same chapter but a different point. There is something highly amusing about a pearl, The Rosinate Pearl, having vaguely homicidal tendencies. That (perhaps fictional) pearl has quite a high body count. (p.17, The Pearl Buyer of Broome)

• The Liftman is written in an interesting way. It's the only one written from a dual perspective and I like it.

• Under the laws of the time, suicide, or felo-de-se ('felon of himself' in Latin) was a crime equivalent to murder, — I knew this law existed but I never knew the Latin for it. What I found more interesting was that being found guilty of felo-de-se allowed the state to seize your assets. Francis Grote also has a pretty good ghost. (p.26, The Huntsman of Rostrevor)

• Catherine Spense broke my heart but she is exactly the kind of woman you aspire for your daughters to be.

• And to this day, every November, Campbelltown celebrates the Fisher's Ghost Festival, an event which brings together the whole town to celebrate community and ghosts. — This celebration is kinda weird to me, and I'm guessing a lot of others. Fisher has only had one appearance, unfinished business and all that. He's a bit different among this collection. (p.35, Fisher's Ghost)

• It could be that the sandhills themselves are simply replaying their own memory of the nightmare that descended upon them that chilly autumn night. — The feel of the unknown in the sandhills. It's different, and I like the imagery. (p.38, The Murdering Sandhills)

• I adore Albert Ogilvie so much as a ghost. He was a legend as a man too.

• Even in the olden days, when hanging people was more a fun family day out than a law-enforcement technique, slipping the noose around a female neck was something not done lightly. — This is about Martha Rendell and my response was essentially Jesus Christ you what? (p.43, The Stepmother from Hell)

• Marybank's protective ghosts are great. Allowing themselves to be heard but not seen by the occupants of the house, the descendants of the first family, the Fox's. But more than willing to reveal themselves to guests. It's a bit of a quirk among the entries.

• the Miracle House of Guildford in Western Sydney is fascinating. If you believe the story (and this one I am sceptical of) Mike Tannerous fulfilled his life goal to help people. I had to laugh when I read this entry though. Just days ago my mother and I were talking about canonisation in the Catholic church.

• The fact that Old Tailem Town was constructed Frankenstein-style, from historic buildings from elsewhere, means that it occupies a unique place among ghostly locations. Rather than being haunted by those who died on the spot, spirits have been trucked in from myriad other spots to rub shoulders on the pioneer village. — They are some pretty unique ghosts though. I do like the idea of a Frankenstein-style construction of a town. (p.75-6, Terror of Tailem Town)

• I am absolutely unsurprised that the Old Melbourne Goal is in here. The ghost of choice is Cell 17, a notorious and extremely physical ghost. I do quite appreciate Ned Kelly's silence on spectral matters.

• Quinn's Light is fascinating. But questions... I have questions.

• Indeed, as there are plenty of other spirits haunting the North Kapunda Hotel — hence its 'most haunted' appellation — the Man in Black likes to keep busy menacing them as well. It's a rare and particularly obnoxious ghost who devotes his time to spooking other spooks, but that's the Man in Black all over: a total jerk. — The North Kapunda Hotel is the place with the most entries. Dr Blood (no seriously his real name), The Man in Black, Sarah and Emily and her sister. They are all different and I like that are all here. The Man in Black is a total jerk and I kinda like it. (p.102, The Man in Black)

• But seriously: if you want to know how terrifying an old maternity hospital can be, just think about babies. Lots of babies. Crying. Screaming, sobbing, wailing. In the night. — Nope, nope, nope. How about nope. (p.104, The Evil Matron)

• I'd heard of George Grover, convict and all-round toss pot. But I didn't know he went ghost.

• Adelaide Arcade has more than a few ghosts, but us was the family case that got me.

• I'm honestly not surprised Mad Dan Morgan has a ghost and a nasty one at that. And that is two headless horsemen in Australia. What does surprise me is the lack of bushrangers with ghosts in general. It kinda gives a beaten by the better men or death wish to their life choices/ actions.

• George Ferguson Bowen had a well travelled and illustrious career. That his ghost settled in Brisbane makes me wonder... why?

• I appreciate the inclusion of the modern ghosts in The Road to Capalaba. I wish we knew their story. But in a way not having it is even better. Because they could be everyone.

• There are three chapters on The spooks of Monte Christo, with Monte Christo being a Homestead in Junee, New South Wales. They are all very different ghosts. The maid that found herself in a delicate condition was completely unsurprising fukn men in power. But it is Harold, Harold that broke me. Instead, going by the most cutting-edge medical and psychological advice available at the time, they decided to help Harold to live a rich and fulfilling life by chaining him to a wall. (p.140, ) Hahaha... NO. He was chained to a wall for 40 years. 🤬 No wonder he became a ghost. It was horrifying. The only shock is that he's a friendly ghost. As in he just was to make friends 😢.

• Melbourne's Princess Theatre opened in December 1886 and has been haunted since March 1888. That's impressive. I didn't know about the vacant seat tradition. Though it is hardly the only theatre with that kind of tradition.

• How have I never heard Elizabeth Scott's story before now (Poor Elizabeth Scott)? Hanged at the Old Melbourne Goal in 1863 for conspiring to kill her husband. She was married off to her husband at 13 (a little young even for the time) and of course, he was an abusive pos. The shotgun blast to his head fixed that malady (good). And because I can't resist.

• But there's something sweet and hopeful about the sight of Blanche and Dave wandering St Mark's together, because that's exactly what they are: together. Being a ghost seems like a lonely lifestyle, and all the moreso for a child. If these two youngsters, talked by tragedy and separated by six decades, have in afterlife found each other, their friendship might b cause for uplift in that grim and sombre place. —(p.178, The Cemetery Children)

• Sometimes the presentation of the ghost feels like true indication of the rest of their story. Like the milliner mourning her own death in the fashions of the day and in the art (trade if you must) that was her life.

• All countries have ghost stories, but only one turned a ghost story into its most popular patriotic song. Of course, 'Waltzing Matilda' isn't just a ghost story: it's also a cheerful tale of suicide and depending on your point of view an account of either justice or injustice done. —I really like all the falsehoods in the song but that original story should not be forgotten. (p188, And His Ghost My Be Heard...)

• I'm pleased there are ghost animals in here. Animals may be more disconcerting than humans.

• The hangings at the Old Windmill (Brisbane) in July 1841 were horrifying. If you want to hang someone hang them, not whatever that was.

• The current proprietors of the Albany Convict Gaol have, in the interests of giving their customers value for money in the frights department, adorned the rooms of the old building with a variety of dummies of frankly nightmarish aspect. They set them in chairs to stare at you so that when you turn to go into a room, you jump out of your skin and let out an embarrassingly high-pitched nose because there's some kind of deformed evil gypsy watching you with one bulging eye. —The book actually contains an image of one of the mannequins and they scare me more than any ghost in that place could I think. (p.242, The Black Hole) There are baby cries... baby cries in a convict gaol? I think not thank you. It's just so very wrong. The title The Black Hole is a sensory deprivation cell. Again no thank you. And I'm pretty sure they are still used.

• Oh man, the ghosts in Steiglitz outnumber the people... by quite a way.

• I did not know that Australia even had a monastic town, let alone that it had its own guardian ghost. New Norcia in W.A. was settled by Spanish Benedictine Monks in 1847. The ghost, known as The Blue Nun, is that of Sister Maria Harispe.

• The best known and most seen of Gaiety's cast of spirits is Ava, the theatre's proud addition to the pantheon of little-girl ghosts. — Honestly Ava sounds kinda adorable. She just kinda ignores people and goes about her business. (p.261, Ghosts of the Gaiety) There really in a pantheon little-girl ghosts. I'm just going to put a couple of them here. The little girl at Larundel Asylum is so heartbreaking, her music box would be disturbing though. The young girls at Spook Cemetery are horrifying. As much as more of these places would be great to visit not his one. You need nice hands. The last little-girl ghost we meet is at the Coach & Horses, she just wants friends, appearing mostly to children.

• Determinig whether the Royal Derwent Hospital, popularly known as Willow Court is haunted is a relatively simple process. Just ask the question, 'Is Willow Court Australia's oldest mental health facility?' If the answer is 'yes,' then OF COURSE, IT'S HAUNTED, YOU IDIOT. I mean, surely we know by know: if it's old and it once housed the mentally ill, there will be ghosts fizzing about inside it. — There is so much going on at this place nearly all of it bad. 'Asylum's abortion chair' is just three words that do not belong together here, unsurprisingly that chair has its own ghost. (p.263, Winston of Ward 5)

• It's interesting The Poinciana Woman echoes a few female folk tales globally. A huge injustice was committed against her I'm glad that the tale exists. Like so many of her sister tales she has become both a caregiver and an angel of vengeance.

• And they stare at you with their lifeless eyes, as if you say, 'As soon as you turn your back is turned, we are going to jump you and sink our mannequin fangs into your tender flesh like those statues from Doctor Who.' — I really did not expect a Faraway Tree. Yeah, they are pretty damn odd. Oh and we get this Doctor Who reference in the same entry as a treat. What other Doctor Who monster are we going to reference other than Weeping Angels. (p. 93, The Grouch Major)

#100 tales from australia's most haunted places #ghosts #read australian #ben pobjie #book review #ktreviews #read 2022 #booklr #haunting #non fiction #tw death #tw murder #tw suicide #tw torture #tw racism #tw classism #tw ablism

[aghostfromtheages]

I was reading letters to the editor in the '92 Morbius comic issues and...

Josh, how did it feel being 30 years too early to be the funniest person alive

#morbius #reading this killed me #20 points of psychic damage #the year of our lord 2022

[foxounderscorecube]

I'm Glad My Mom Died - Jennette McCurdy

4¾ ⭐

TW: ed discussion

First, shout-out to whoever did the cover design for this book, because it goes hard.

More importantly, in terms of content, this is an incredibly evocative book, to me - hence the high rating. It was unpleasant to read because of how real it felt.

This especially shows in McCurdy's very frank coverage of her eating disorders. I've had a similar experience of being anorexic, bulimic, somewhere in between, and it's something I'd still not say I'm totally recovered from. Although her descriptions are never hyper-detailed or visceral, they encapsulate exactly how it feels - her descriptions of binging and purging were probably the first I've read where I thought, "Yes! That's it, that's the best way you could describe it".   I would say it might be best to read this when you feel like you're in a safe headspace, if you're someone with any tendencies towards disordered eating.

Of course, the stuff I didn't relate to - the awful, horrible mother, and the stresses of unwanted child stardom - had the same reality to it. That sounds silly, because, yeah, it IS real, but being able to express one's history in a way that makes the reader feel almost like they lived it themselves is a hell of a skill. The writing style is casual and chatty, but I'm pretty sure that is independent of the sheer rawness of it.

I'm glad McCurdy wrote this. It must have been terrifying to publish something so intimate, but it gives a great insight into how being famous at a young age can affect somebody, and, I hope, empowers readers who have suffered abuse at the hands of those meant to protect them. 

#read 2022 #reviewed 2022 #non fiction #memoir #review #books #reading