I'm Glad My Mom Died

Many years ago, I worked in the film industry as a studio teacher. I spent a week in an onset classroom with Jennette McCurdy and found her to be intelligent, creative, witty, and generous—an absolute treat to hang out with. I had no idea of the darkness infecting her life nor of the abuse she endured.

My default genre is literary fantasy, in particular featuring alternative worlds. But every year, I try to explore other genres, and lately, I’ve been reading memoirs. No matter how great the world-building, for me it’s always the characters that ultimately make a story, and… show more.

As a former bulimic who wrote a novel about a bulimic woman, I have a sense of how difficult it must be to write a memoir focused on eating disorders. Memoirs are tricky when family members are key characters; they’re trickier when those family members have caused significant suffering.

But Jeannette McCurdy—a former child star with a horrific history of eating disorders—manages to write a clear-eyed, unflinching account of her relationship with her narcissistic, controlling late mother. She doesn’t shy away from dark themes or placing blame on her mother, but somehow retains a sense of humor that makes… show more.

Jeannette McCurdy’s book about her challenging relationship with her mother hit the best-seller list just as I was in the process of publishing my own book about my mentally ill mother and my own mixed-up family.

Reading McCurdy’s frank account of her childhood with a controlling, drama-ridden mother boosted my resolve to write and promote my own story by focusing on resilience and themes of intergenerational healing.

I’m Glad My Mom Died was a super compelling read. 

As someone who has a deep love for memoirs, especially since I write them myself, I was completely drawn into Jennette McCurdy's heartbreaking yet hilariously honest journey. I'm Glad My Mom Died isn't just a memoir; it's a raw, unfiltered account of her life as a former child actor and the tumultuous relationship she had with her overbearing mother.

At the tender age of six, Jennette found herself stepping into the world of auditions and stardom, driven by her mother's dream of seeing her become a star. It was a path paved with sacrifices, as she endured what her mother… show more.

With a codependent mother relationship that feeds into various forms of abuse (CW: eating disorders being one of them) and Hollywood as the backdrop for this coming-of-age story, this is an important, unforgettable memoir.

It’s a gift to be so darkly funny and honest as a nonfiction writer, particularly when your own deep vulnerability is in service of something larger. Written in short numbered passages that span McCurdy’s life from early childhood into adulthood, this true story is a perfect rollercoaster.

Both laugh-out-loud funny and deliriously sad, there’s never a moment you won’t feel held by this book and this… show more.

Despite a title that may indicate an angry revenge read, this memoir navigates the question of what, if anything, an adult daughter owes her abusive mother.

It also explores two paradoxes: loving and fearing a mother, and missing a mother who has died and being relieved she is no longer alive. McCurdy does a masterful and sensitive job of describing the childhood abuse she experienced at the hands of her mother and her journey to healing and wholeness.

Jennette McCurdy takes oversharing to a new level in this memoir – something I personally think makes reading about grief more approachable while maintaining the importance of the topic.

She unravels the complicated times throughout her childhood as a child and teenage actor as her mom controlled her entire being, and then shows how it has made her grief process even more confusing than normal.

As someone who has experienced the same levels of guilty grief, this is probably the first book I would recommend to anyone who has a complex relationship with their dead parent. Jennette is frank and… show more.

Written by a former child actress, I’m Glad My Mom Died takes readers on the gut-wrenching rollercoaster that is having a parent with cancer (I’ll admit, I’ve been on this ride myself). The author recounts her early acting career, her brief foray into the music industry, and her ongoing battle with disordered eating, all while praying that her above-and-beyond people-pleasing proclivities will be enough to deter her mother’s cancer from returning. This book is so raw, it practically bleeds.