Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love by Jonathan Van Ness

7 reviews

tieflingmom's review

dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Cancer, Rape, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Addiction, Homophobia, Death, Fatphobia, Medical trauma, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Child abuse, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Animal death, Biphobia, Dementia, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, and Self harm

sblisberg's review against another edition

Just not mentally in the right headspace to hear how dark his story goes. I’m so happy he is out and thriving and will finish one day. This story is worth listening to, just not after a family
Member dies

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Alcohol, Death, and Alcoholism

pacifickat's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

I'm not sure I could have read a memoir about someone with more different life experiences to my own, but here's to a year of reading broadly! 

The audiobook absolutely made this book work for me as a reader. There were so many jokes and moments that relied on anticipating the correct voice intonation in order to completely land, and it was fun hearing JVN's humor come through in the audio narration. Plus, I would have hopelessly butchered all the Russian pseudonyms in my head.

Lots of trigger warnings could be applied to this book (childhood trauma, sexual content, drug use, self harm, bullying, etc.), but I have rarely heard more accurate or compelling descriptions of addictive behaviors and the self-destructive-yet-all-consuming mental state behind them than here. This felt like an extremely honest and open account of the author's most formative life experiences, and I can't help but admire that. 

I also really appreciated learning a bit about AIDS/HIV stigma, treatments, and current positive prognoses when caught early and managed carefully. This kind of information is truly a public service to get out there in the open.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Homophobia, Drug abuse, Bullying, Chronic illness, Self harm, Addiction, Death of parent, Drug use, Cancer, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Dementia, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Death, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

Minor: Eating disorder and Fatphobia

itstheconnorsbookclub's review

dark emotional funny informative inspiring sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Self harm, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Body shaming, Child abuse, Blood, Hate crime, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

danajoy's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad

It feels wrong to give this a rating. This memoir is raw and at times confronting as well as being the bright, inspiring JVN you might have seen on Gay of Thrones or Queer Eye. This is a truly vulnerable vision of his life and all its trauma and triumph. 
The audiobook experience was lovely, it sort of feels like you're having a chat. I love that when faced with sharing a particularly difficult part of his life story there is an interlude consisting of a report he wrote as a child. It is an incredible book but there is a lot of pain in here so I'm sure JVN would be ok with me saying, if the discussions of childhood sexual abuse, addiction, self-destructive behaviour or disordered eating are triggering for you it is not just ok but important that you practice self-love and don't retraumatise yourself through this story. 

It is fantastic and well worth the read. Thank you Jonathan Van Ness for sharing your story and I hope that it proved that yes, your fans will still love you if they see all your parts.   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, and Infidelity

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Vomit, Terminal illness, Self harm, Sexual violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Child abuse, Cancer, and Alcoholism

duntothewood's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Self harm, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

emikate's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

Jonathan Van Ness is funny, inspiring, kind and loving. However, he has also suffered tremendously and this book was to educate people about his experiences to make them less stigmatised and to show others in similar situations that they are not alone.
Jonathan has a great way of intertwining challenging subjects with hilarious and kind-hearted humour. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

The book contains Jonathan's account about his experience contracting HIV and how that affected him having grown up during the aids crisis. It also mentions him numbing and intentionally inflicting suffering by going to sex houses