I'm Glad My Mom Died (Jennette McCurdy)
Originally reviewed on 12/19/22.
I do not read memoirs and I do not read quickly and yet I was captivated by this book and finished it in one day. I found the writing style easy to follow, and I greatly enjoyed how the chapters were split up. Each chapter is about a certain experience or moment in life, so some chapters ran longer and others were only 1 page. I'm glad there was no pressure to pad shorter chapters out, and instead what was written was all that Jennette wanted to say, no extra fluff.
The book goes chronologically, and as Jennette matures so does the writing style, which felt very engaging. Writing from the perspective of how she felt at the time as a naive child hit harder and let us in to how she felt far more than writing from the perspective of an adult and looking back. This book was raw, honest, and cathartic. I did not catch much of the humor that other people report this book to have, but I assume that's because I read it and did not listen to Jennette's own delivery in the audio book version. Jennette does have a dark and sardonic wit, but in this book it's not the kind that makes you laugh.
I see a lot of criticism towards the title but personally I enjoy it and the cover. I can't believe I've seen people say that the title should be something "nicer." The book itself acknowledges that flawed line of thinking, the idea that mothers should be propped up just because they're mothers and that their children should love them no matter how abusive they are. It speaks to me as someone who's own abuse has been downplayed and called false simply because people can not comprehend that a mother could harm her children. You're allowed to hate your mother.
I highly recommend reading this if it interests you at all. It has a lot of heavy stuff in it, but luckily Storygraph already has all the content warnings written out. I relate a lot to Jennette's experiences and I found this book to be painfully cathartic. But seeing such open depictions of things such as child abuse and eating disorders could easily trigger someone, so read the CWs and be mindful of your own limitations.
★★★★★