I'm Glad My Mom Died; Jennette McCurdy

I’m going to keep this review short because, with any non-fiction book, talking about the contents of history or someone’s life isn’t really the purpose of a book review, at least not to me. I will say that I have never watched shows like iCarly even though I knew what they were and the cultural phenomenon they were for early Nickelodeon. I didn’t know who this actor-turned-author was. However, her memoir was one that kept getting recommended and, let’s face it, the book’s title did overtime in terms of getting people interested in the contents (and the media to maybe over sensationalize it). In the memoir, McCurdy tells of her time not only as a child actor, but her… unique home life in a hoarder house with an abusive mom, though as a child, she didn’t see the abuse for what it was at the time.

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I think the title of the memoir is misleading. There, I said it. Ultimately, that was the part that left me feeling a little unsure about this book as a whole. I had seen interviews the author had done when the book first released so I knew, vaguely, some of the contents already. I was expecting her to talk about the abuse, eating disorders, and addiction she lived with and through. But I was also expecting something more, something more along the lines of recognizing what her mother and home life did to her. You do get that a bit, but it’s maybe a full chapter or two. Never once does it seem like she is glad her mother is dead, shall we say. Not once is it discussed how the other adults in this authors life allowed for such blatant abuse to happen, either, and I think I was just expecting more of that kind of reflection rather than a pure recounting of events. That being said, I highly recommend the audiobook as it is read by the author and I think hearing her read her own story is uniquely powerful and healing. But, with the title, I was hoping for more self analysis and that never happened, hence the 4 stars. However, this is a super quick read and I think it can be very inspiring and helpful to others with traumatic childhoods.