I’m Glad My Mom Died
By Jennette McCurdy
Publication Year: 2022
Type: Non-fiction
Genre: memoir
Read on 2022-09-02
★★★☆☆
This was good but not as good as everyone says it is? Well-written insofar as it’s a riveting tale, but can’t compare to the memoirs I’ve read by more seasoned writers. This book is at its best when it brings the reader into McCurdy’s psychological state under the abusive and enmeshed relationship with her mom, and then shows us how, through the haze of grief, she began to re-write the narrative about that relationship and this person. I think it’s great that this book about recognizing abuse, setting boundaries, and healing is getting so much traction, especially among young people of my age and younger who watched iCarly. It’ll validate similar experiences and hopefully inspire those in abusive relationships to seek help.
I found the frame of dark comedy a little hard to swallow, personally, given how truly terrible so many of the events were, but I respect the creative choice she made to present her own story this way. I also would’ve liked to see more reflection on many of the events within the book, given that they are written about in the present tense as they unfold. I’ve seen some interviews in the massive press tour for this book where she does discuss this, but it would’ve been great to have it included in the book itself.
