Heartbreaking and Amazing!

You would have to be living under a rock in the literary world right now to not have heard about I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. The former child star has stepped away from the limelight in recent years, aside from her personal podcast, and has spoken on the record multiple times about the terrible time she had as a young actress. This book, which expands upon many of the things she mentioned before on her podcast, is a memoir of her young life in Hollywood, working on very popular shows on Nickelodeon. However, few people knew of the way Jennette was silently suffering from having a stifled childhood and her innocence taken from her at such a young age.

While the title is attention-grabbing, McCurdy is entirely within her right to speak so poorly of her mother. It’s a tough book to read at times due to the absolutely heinous abuse she endured from her own mother. Her mother was an obsessive monster who abused Jennette in every way possible, and it was only with her death that Jennette began to heal from the way she was treated when she was a child.

While this is a fantastically candid memoir, I would absolutely talk to a friend or patron about their limits or triggers if I were to recommend this title. There are many mentions of abusive relationships, eating disorders, and mental health issues that might not be the kind of thing everyone is comfortable reading. While important, it may trigger some readers’ own issues, so I would just be aware of that before blindly telling others to read it. If it’s something they can handle, however, it’s a fantastic read, and the audiobook is even better as it is read by Jennette.

Title: I’m Glad My Mom Died
Author: Jennette McCurdy
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9781982185824

Three Descriptors: Candid, Honest, Heavy

Read Alikes:
Here’s The Story by Maureen McCormick
In Pieces by Sally Field
Corrinne by Rebecca Morrow
Diary of a Stage Mother’s Daughter by Melissa Francis
Mean Baby by Selma Blair