Dad’s book # 1 | Kirkus Reviews

Ex icarly The star thinks about her difficult childhood.

In her debut memoir, entitled after her show for a woman in 2020, singer and actor McCurdy (River 1992) reveals the harsh details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse in the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable mom on stage, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three bigger brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Although initially she survived, the recurrence of the disease would eventually take her life when the author was 21 years old. McCurdy openly reconstructed those between years, showing how “my mother emotionally, mentally and physically abuse me in ways that will forever influence me.” Insisting to form her only daughter in Mom’s Little Actress, Debra mixed her in auditions, starting at the age of 6. As they ripen and began to book acting concerts, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom” ​​while Debra became more and more adverse about her daughter’s physical appearance. She colored her daughter’s eyelashes, turned white with her teeth, imposed a tightly observed “calorie restriction” regime, and took regular genital exams for her as a teenager. In the end, the author understood understandably and tried to distance himself from his mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCudi became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self -deduction and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly presents the cruel perfectionist personality of Debra and patterns of abuse of behavior, showing a woman who can be angry with everything from a curved eye line to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy shows compassion for her deeply defective mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret that her father revealed to her as an adult. Until McCri has come out of her childhood unharmed, she manages to rotate her painful experience in a sold -out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis, which puts her mind, body and acting career in peace.

The heartfelt history of an emotionally battered child, delivered with a captivating honesty and grace.