Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry

8 reviews

alexdelte's review against another edition

hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

je suis si triste qu’il ne soit plus là, c’était si beau

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Addiction, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Self harm, Cancer, Chronic illness, and Confinement

amygracewillis's review

dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

2.0

I don’t usually post reviews or ratings.

Who ever the editor is for this book should look for a new profession. If I have to be told one more time that he is the funniest person in the room at any point and how many girls he shagged in California in the 90s and 00s one more time I will scream.

There is absolutely no timeline to follow, you just get random stories with no context, good luck trying to figure out what year we are in at any point. 

I just wanted to find out a bit of behind the scenes stuff about friends and a bit about his struggle with addiction, but instead I got to learn that when he got sober he used to go to clubs to pick up girls because being sober was more attractive to them at 2am? What the fuck?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Abandonment

Minor: Car accident, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Cancer, Confinement, Excrement, and Self harm

amandas_bookshelf's review

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical trauma, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Alcohol, and Medical content

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Car accident, and Infidelity

torturedreadersdept's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Drug use, Dysphoria, Forced institutionalization, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Abandonment, Vomit, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Dementia and Ableism

alixcallender's review against another edition

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

4.25

Listening to the audiobook version of this after Matthew Perry’s death is unbearably, crushingly sad. I am weeping like a child as I write this, having just heard his closing montage of love and gratitude for the people in his life. 

It is not a perfect book, but it’s honest - he equally expresses his anger, fear, and complete selfishness alongside humility, reflection, and love. He’s a complex person, like we’re all complex people. I am actually surprised it has such low ratings, but my guess is probably that people struggle with the beginning. At the outset, he portrays himself as a narcissistic, bitter curmudgeon with mommy/daddy issues and no respect for women.  If you’d picked up the book because you love Chandler Bing, this intro is alarming. (It is also a bit disorganized, from an editing/narrative standpoint.) But to anyone who starts it, I implore you to finish it. You must finish it. As the book continues, Perry stumblingly arrives to a place of gratitude and hard-won optimism, acknowledging his deep-set flaws and realizing the universe is not out to get him. I think the set up of this book is deliberate: you start from the brain of an millionaire drug addict, self-pitying and loathsome and ungrateful; then you join him on the painful journey to sobriety, failing plenty of times along the way but ultimately coming out the other side with love both for himself and for the people in his life.

That’s why the reality of his untimely death is so, so sad. He concludes with such hope and optimism and appreciation for the beauty of the world. Wanting this chapter of his life to be the longest and happiest, wanting to find love, maybe have kids. He continually expressed how thankful he was to just be alive. A sense that he survived what he did for a higher purpose. Listening to this, knowing he would be dead only two years later, is heartbreaking. I can only imagine how his friends and family must feel. 

I don’t know fully what to take away from this. Yes, he had many successes in life and had it a lot easier than some addicts, and yes much of this book is flawed. But addiction like this is unimaginably difficult no matter how much fame and money you have. I was rooting for him throughout, and am sadder for it. I’m only hopeful he found true happiness at the very end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Excrement, Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Mental illness, and Self harm

Moderate: Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Grief, Confinement, Gaslighting, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexism, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

murphybl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Confinement, Alcohol, Medical content, and Medical trauma

rory_john14's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Sexual content, Abandonment, Addiction, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Infidelity, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Grief, Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Drug abuse, Death, Medical trauma, and Self harm

Moderate: Car accident, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gore, Vomit, Pandemic/Epidemic, Toxic friendship, Chronic illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Violence, Cancer, Eating disorder, Suicide, War, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

ellaticonstellation's review against another edition

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

5.0

Thank you, Matty, for writing this memoir. Thank you for telling your story, I wanted to read this story as soon as the news broke out (I waited months, 12 months to be exact). I love his authenticity and the dark humor it has (I always loved dark humor). 

I have watched Friends 6 times or more already (Yes, all of the episodes, including the reunion), and I loved Chandler Bing the most, the Chan Chan man who is awkward and jokes when uncomfortable. I liked that Chandler was a bit based on Matthew IRL; it gave me an idea of who he was. I just loved that he was perfect for the role. Friends wouldn't be the same without your sweater vests in it. Haha! Peace!

I have to be honest; this story was hard to read because of the big terrible thing. It made me sad that a person went through hell so much. It must be so painful. 

I'm glad he was still alive because Matty is brilliant (See some of the Friends' jokes by him for proof). He needs to write more stuff because he is super funny; his jokes need an audience. 

P. S. 
Fame is something, huh? It costs a lot more than we realized. And wow, Matty's voice on the audiobook helped so much with the texts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Confinement, Grief, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Forced institutionalization