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A review by opalmars
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
4.0
praying that Jennette makes more from this book than Nickelodeon could’ve ever offered with their hush money
A truly incredible and hard-hitting memoir. Whether you watched Jennette’s shows growing up (like me) or you don’t know her at all, I think this book is a must read. I don’t want to go into too many details, so I’ll just share some of my thoughts:
• The writing is easy to read but still poignant. I think Jennette did a great job recounting the events of her life. I especially appreciate how she recounted her childhood; she really nailed writing from the perspective of a naïve child who doesn’t realize how awful her mother is.
• I love how truthful Jennette was about her own fuck-ups. She admitted she was very aware of how bitter and rude she had become, and how ungrateful she seemed (obviously, I think she was justified).
• I particularly loved the section about Jennette’s time on “Sam & Cat”. It showed how much her addiction, mental illnesses and eating disorders affected her work; how much Nickelodeon mistreated her, especially when compared to Ariana Grande; and how resentful she had grown over the years.
• The exploitation of children in the entertainment industry is something that really needs to be discussed. Seeing a child star expose the abuse she suffered in the industry is truly heartbreaking, but extremely important, especially in this day and age, where even more parents are pressuring their children and forcing them to put themselves out there for fame. I wonder if in 10 years we’ll see similar testimonies from kids of family channels who grew up making money for their parents in an even more disgusting way: by having they entire lives documented and posted online for all to see.
• Jennette’s friendship with Miranda was so wholesome <3
• A bit of a critique: I feel like certain events were skipped and only mentioned later in the timeline (for example: we never see her audition for iCarly, or how filming the 1st episode was, suddenly it was already 3 years into the filming of the show, out of nowhere we find out that she’d been to multiple events and red carpets, she randomly mentions she knows she has OCD and EDs – I guess she learned and came to terms with it off-page…). Obviously, this is a memoir, so the author knows better than me what was important to document, but still, some of these things seemed kind of crucial in my opinion (especially her learning about her disorders).
• The main reasons I’m giving it 4 stars is because memoirs are not really my thing, so I ended up not enjoying this as much as the other books I give 5 stars to; and because, as I mentioned, I think some things could’ve been a bit better. But, again, I still loved this book and highly recommend it to everyone!
(review written on 24/08/2022)
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this title is BRUTAL
A truly incredible and hard-hitting memoir. Whether you watched Jennette’s shows growing up (like me) or you don’t know her at all, I think this book is a must read. I don’t want to go into too many details, so I’ll just share some of my thoughts:
• The writing is easy to read but still poignant. I think Jennette did a great job recounting the events of her life. I especially appreciate how she recounted her childhood; she really nailed writing from the perspective of a naïve child who doesn’t realize how awful her mother is.
• I love how truthful Jennette was about her own fuck-ups. She admitted she was very aware of how bitter and rude she had become, and how ungrateful she seemed (
• I particularly loved the section about Jennette’s time on “Sam & Cat”. It showed how much her addiction, mental illnesses and eating disorders affected her work; how much Nickelodeon mistreated her, especially when compared to Ariana Grande; and how resentful she had grown over the years.
• The exploitation of children in the entertainment industry is something that really needs to be discussed. Seeing a child star expose the abuse she suffered in the industry is truly heartbreaking, but extremely important, especially in this day and age, where even more parents are pressuring their children and forcing them to put themselves out there for fame. I wonder if in 10 years we’ll see similar testimonies from kids of family channels who grew up making money for their parents in an even more disgusting way: by having they entire lives documented and posted online for all to see.
• Jennette’s friendship with Miranda was so wholesome <3
• A bit of a critique: I feel like certain events were skipped and only mentioned later in the timeline (for example: we never see her audition for iCarly, or how filming the 1st episode was, suddenly it was already 3 years into the filming of the show, out of nowhere we find out that she’d been to multiple events and red carpets, she randomly mentions she knows she has OCD and EDs – I guess she learned and came to terms with it off-page…). Obviously, this is a memoir, so the author knows better than me what was important to document, but still, some of these things seemed kind of crucial in my opinion (especially her learning about her disorders).
• The main reasons I’m giving it 4 stars is because memoirs are not really my thing, so I ended up not enjoying this as much as the other books I give 5 stars to; and because, as I mentioned, I think some things could’ve been a bit better. But, again, I still loved this book and highly recommend it to everyone!
(review written on 24/08/2022)
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this title is BRUTAL