Book Blog #316: I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

 

Title: I'm Glad My Mom Died

Author: Jennette McCurdy

# of Pages: 320 (ebook)

Genre: Nonfiction, Autobiography

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life.

Review: This book got me out of my reading slump. It's been a while since I craved to read a book, and once I got some time to get around to reading this one, I could not put it down.

Like many others, I only knew McCurdy from her role as Sam in iCarly. I didn't know any of her other work (nor did I ever watch her spin off series Sam & Cat). When it was announced that she would not be part of the iCarly reboot, I was more surprised that most of the cast was returning than her not being in and not being an active actor. So many of these young stars seem to disappear from the public eye as they grow up - I didn't think there would be anything special about Jennette's story. 

And yet I started seeing promotional material related to her book - interviews were she talks about her past that I never expected from a Nickelodeon starlet. That being said, everyone celebrity (or self-proclaimed celebrity) seems to be writing books these days, so her writing a book didn't particularly stand out to me. But then, despite her being out of pop culture for so long, her books started doing well and receiving positive reviews, I decided that I might as well check it out. 

McCurdy's writing is pretty easy to read (this matched with what I expected from an actor with a career pivot toward writing). This was the exact type of read I was looking for to get me out of my reading slump. Unlike other celebrity autobiographies I've tried to pick up, McCurdy doesn't over romanticize her hardships - her writing reads like a genuine recollection of her past, and she's just stating it as it is. 

That being said, I wish she presented her childhood with more of the perspective that she had as a child. Her recognition of her mother's abuse only came in retrospect, and I would've found it more impactful if I learned about her mother through the same idolizing point of view she had as a child and learn with Jennette about how these "loving" motherly gestures were actually negatively impacting her habits in adulthood. Instead, McCurdy recollection of her childhood highlights many negative memories (e.g. her mother throwing a tantrum, her mother encouraging her eating disorders) that make the reader cringe with the obvious abuse (regardless if her mother considered her influence to be abusive or not). When she later states in adulthood (before coming to terms with her abuse) that she thought her mother was the perfect mother and refused to let others disrupt this narrative of her mother, it is hard to relate with her because of the way she presented her childhood. 

Despite all of this, I thought that she overall did a good job at telling her story. Although few can say that they had experiences just like McCurdy, many reader with overbearing parents can relate to McCurdy's childhood - loving their parents while still recognizing their faults and the impact they have on their lives for better or, especially in this case, for worse. 

A very quick read about a very complex, codependent mother-daughter relationship. I would recommend this book! 

 

Book Blog #315: The Client by John Grisham

 

Title: The Client

Author: John Grisham

# of Pages: 401 (hardback)

Genre: Adult, Mystery, Thriller

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: This is the story of eleven-year-old Mark Sway, who as the novel opens, witnesses the bizarre suicide of a New Orleans attorney. Just before he dies, the lawyer tells Mark a deadly secret concerning the recent murder of a Louisiana Senator, whose accused killer, Mafia thug Barry Muldanno, is about to go to trial. The police, the federal prosecutor and the FBI pressure Mark to tell them the attorney's last words, but he knows that with the mob watching his every move, revealing his secret will almost surely get him killed.

Review: Jeez, this was a hard one to keep picking up. And even when I did muster the energy to pick it up, it was just so easy to put it down again, thus why it took over 4 months for me to get through this book. 

I've tried (and failed) to read John Grisham's books before, for the same reasons and should have learned my lesson and stayed far away. I can see how there is a market for this sort of thing - especially suckers for crime mystery/thrillers. I wouldn't say I'm not in the category, but it requires a little more craftsmanship in the writing to get me hooked. 

Mystery is an easy way to keep a reader interested - in this book, the mystery is how the young protagonist Mark handle a critical secret that the Mafia would be willing to kill him over. Unfortunately for The Client, even the allure of this mystery is not enough to keep the reader interested in the first half of the story. The story is told over the course of a week, but with all the unnecessary details Grisham decides to add in - such as repeatedly emphasizing how overweight a judge is - it felt more like months. 

The story does pick up at the end (as most mysteries do), but Grisham could have actually milked the ending longer. The ending was abrupt - it would have been more satisfying to flesh this part out about and cut a good portion of the beginning where there is too much character development and not enough plot progression. Sometimes abrupt ending leaving the reader thinking - this ending made me feel robbed of the time I invested reading the beginning only to get a rushed ending.

And of course, likely the biggest contributor to why it took so long for me to finish this book - the third person POV switching. Grisham decided to switch between the POV of pretty much ANYONE in the book. This is frustrating because I found myself being very interested in Mark's POV but much less in the accussed killer Barry, the FBI agents, etc. Not only that, but Grisham pretty clearly spells everything out - with multiple POVs, there's hardly a mystery to the reader even if there's a huge mystery for the rest of the characters. 

I would not recommend this book unless you're interested in anything (even the mediocre) crime and mystery genre or if you've already read some of Grisham's books and liked his work.