Page Turner: I’m Glad My Mom Died

My heart broke for Jennette McCurdy while reading her memoir. 

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy is a memoir about growing up in a poor family, forced into acting to appease her controlling mother who wanted to live through her daughter and live off said daughter’s paychecks. Keep in mind, she started at 6 years old. Things only get worse from there. 

Forcing a child to be the family’s breadwinner is horrific enough, but the level of control her mother had over her was disturbing. She wasn’t allowed any privacy or even permitted to shower alone until well into her teens. She was kept on a calorie-restriction diet that lead to anorexia later in life. She felt like she had to do anything her mother told her to do in order to keep the peace. She was robbed of a normal childhood.

I love the way this memoir is written. I’m Glad My Mom Died is brutal in its honesty. Funny at times, gut-wrenching at others. The writing style shifts with her age too, being simplistic and childlike at the beginning, but maturing along the way, giving another layer of insight into her mindset at the time of these events. 

It feels wrong to say that I loved it since it is all about her trauma and abuse. But yeah, I did. Again, it is a gut punch of a book. I grew up watching her as Sam in ICarly, knowing now the abuse she suffered off-camera was shocking. I hope she is doing much better these days.

I’m Glad My Mom Died is a great book, one that I highly encourage folk to read, but please look after yourself as there is a lot of sensitive material that some may find triggering or upsetting. 

I hope this book helped her heal, getting to tell her story in her own words.