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Suswatibasu (1702 KP) rated How to Murder Your Life in Books

Mar 2, 2018

Trivialises addiction, rather cringeworthy

It has been said that people who begin abusing drugs and alcohol at an early age, tend to stay stuck in that mindset - so it's hardly surprising that the shallow Cat Marnell writes like a teenager.

Marnell describes one ridiculous drug-fuelled event after another, and even talks about the $28,000 rehab facility her father pays for. She adds how she squandered one opportunity after another due to being completely unable to stay clean. And while you should feel sympathy for her, it's quite hard to do so.

So I can say without a doubt that I found this book rather irritating and narcisstic. After all, if Marnell wasn't a privileged white woman, she would have been in prison about 15 years ago. Her trivializing of her own addiction and frankly, bragging about her encounters, just represents how little understanding she has for the majority of other users. And though she does mention her privilege at times, it's almost an afterthought. The fact that the media have glorified her behaviour is equally despicable.

As someone who is aware of addiction, and knows those on the streets - about 90% of this book is cringeworthy. The last part is on her self realisation and it's the only honest part of the book and should have been placed as the prologue.

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ClareR (5784 KP) rated The Companion in Books

Jan 14, 2020

The Companion

Kim Taylor Blakemore | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

The Companion is a really enjoyable historical fiction novel set in 1855 New Hampshire. Lucy Blunt has been found guilty of a double murder, and the story jumps back and forth in time to describe what happened in Lucy’s early life, her time as a maid at the Burton mansion and her life in prison.

One thing that really stood out for me was the stark difference between the privileged Burtons and their hard-working staff. Also Lucy’s shady background was so intriguing, and I really liked the bit by bit exposure of her past and her misdemeanours. She really is an unreliable source of information, and it’s no wonder that she’s sitting in a jail cell awaiting the hangman. But DID she commit murder?

It seemed to me that Lucy was repeatedly let down by the people who should have supported her, that she was used for what these people could get from her. For someone who had virtually no possessions, they took those things that were of herself: her self respect, her trust and her love.

Guilty or not, this was a great read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to lovers of historical fiction and/ or unreliable narrators.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book to read and review.

Kudos

AJaneClark (3975 KP) rated The Prison Doctor in Books

Apr 19, 2020

Easy read (0 more)

Would have liked more detail (0 more)

A quick and interesting read

From the back of the book: Dr Amanda Brown treats inmates in the U.K.’s most infamous prisons. From miraculous pregnancies to dirty protests, and from violent attacks on prisoners to heartbreaking attacks of self harm, she has witnessed it all from her patients. In this eye-opening, inspirational memoir, Amanda reveal stories, the patients and the cases that have shaped a career spent helping those in need. Despite their crimes, she is still their doctor.

I am not a regular non-fiction reader, but reading Adam Kay’s: This is Going to Hurt, inspired me to find and read further uniquely real life stories.

Dr Amanda Brown does not disappoint when recalling her departure from medicine in a general practice to handling very different and sometimes scary situations working as a doctor in prisons. We follow the doc on her journey from a boys youth prison, through Wormwood Scrubs and finally HMP Bronzfield. Dr Amanda Brown shares with the readers some of the highs and lows she faced when working with prisoners and briefly recounts the battles she faced with herself and with the politics of working in an institute with rules and regulations. For anyone that likes this genre I would definitely suggest giving this one a read.