Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land

37 reviews

crybabybea's review against another edition

challenging hopeful reflective medium-paced

3.5

A good reminder that you never know the extent of what someone is going through, or the reason behind the decisions they make, and to have a little more empathy.

I appreciated the look inside the complicated nature of navigating extreme poverty and homelessness, and single motherhood. I especially found it eye-opening to see the unnecessarily judgmental and harsh standards placed on those seeking help either via social services or homeless/domestic violence shelters.

I found it hard to get through the middle portion of the book as the author spent a lot of time detailing the different homes she cleaned while working as a maid. Though I recognize the purpose of these scenes and think they did a great job juxtaposing the author's struggle to live with the privilege of those she worked for.

I think someone who doesn't know a lot about poverty or the experience of being poor would gain more knowledge from this.

Content Warnings

jsant's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

A powerful memoir of a young single mother working hard to make ends meet. I gained a valuable perspective reading this book. Made me think.

Content Warnings

siobhanward's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative medium-paced

3.5

For the past few weeks, my Tiktok has been FULL of clips from the Netflix adaptation of this book, which was enough to make me curious about it. The book itself was ok (though clearly Netflix added a lot of their own content to it - almost nothing I've seen of the series is actually from the book). I understand other reviewers' surprise that Stephanie was 28 when the events of the book began, but I will also take a moment to acknowledge that while I'm currently 28, I have a huge amount of privileges that she has not and comparing where I am at 28 to where Land was is not useful.

While I was definitely frustrated with Land's decisions at times, I'll also say that I'm really not someone who can judge, having never been in her position. I will say that my critique of the book is a bit more to do with how things were sometimes laid out (some things got rushed through while others felt dragged out), but the book was solid and Land told her story in a really interesting way.

Content Warnings

graciejlc's review

Go to review page

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.5

An engaging read, its a good insight for those more fortunate to see how expensive it is to be poor, and the extra work and othering for those on welfare.

I appreciate that the author was honest about her experience and choices; some of the reviewers got pretty heated about this. You may not make the same choices in the same situation, and that's ok, you are in fact... different people!

Can hard relate to when she just wanted enough in the bank to be able to buy fresh fruit. I don't miss those days.

Content Warnings

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

God was this good and impactful. Just a really clear look at how poverty looks in this godforsaken country, and how you can't "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" if the system is set up to make sure that you can't move forward. And Ms. Land didn't even have systemic racism working against her! Just. incredible and so important.

Content Warnings