A memoir to remember - I’m Glad my Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Growing up, everyone had a favourite TV show. For many, it was Disney shows such as Jessie or Hannah Montana. For others, it was Victorious or iCarly. These shows made many kids happy. For some, like myself, it became a ritual after school. I would return home, turn the TV on and watch my favourite shows. But although it made many kids happy around the world, the most important kids, the actual actors, were suffering, being overworked, abused… Jennette McCurdy’s brave memoir explains what it is growing up with an abusive mother as a child actor with fame and the responsibility of making money for an entire family.

Jennette’s memoir is divided into two parts, Before and After. Before her mother died and after she did. It’s a hard read, many topics are discussed that I advise for you to research about before. There is emotional, physical and mental abuse from her mother as well as a lot of discussions about ED, alcoholism and addiction. It’s a heavy book that is very well written. At some points it feels like you are watching the scene play out through Jennette’s eyes when she was just 6 years old when she started acting. In some points, you feel like you are watching her though your TV in your living room when she was in iCarly, and you even feel bad for having enjoyed her portrayal of the tomboy character she used to play; Sam. And sometimes I felt like I had to stop the audiobook because even’s Jennette’s telling of her own book was so hard to get through (emotionally).

This book was brilliant, shocking and most importantly: true. It establishes and shows a reality that many kids have to go through. Not only the child actors but also many kids that have to suffer parent’s abuse. The title, although hard for some to read, is brilliant, it’s funny, it’s real, and it’s shocking. Just like Jennette’s life. I have heard and seen people criticise the title, but I think if you don’t like it, you should not read the book because then it means that you cannot see the world like it is: sometimes cruel where sometimes parents are not as great as they are supposed to be.

The writing is easy to get through, it simplifies feelings and moments of her life that are not simple, that are complicated. It’s an exciting but sad read that is not trying to make you cry, but rather it is trying to tell a truth that many did not know. I wish so many more people read this book to understand what she went through and to comprehend what goes into an industry that many “normal” people do not know about.

Sadly, I have seen many news articles about this book focusing on the wrong parts. For example, Ariana Grande or the Hush letter they offered her at Nickelodeon. I wish people would see this book like it’s supposed to be read. About Jennette, about her mom, about her suffering, EDs about everything that she had and sometimes still has to live with. But sadly the internet focuses on the wrong parts and that really saddens me. I see this book as a love letter to her mother as well as the opposite. But I mostly see this book as a love letter to herself.