Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein

62 reviews

querciola's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

3.0

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alexiaalaurenn's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book was not what I expected at all. I thought I was going to learn about what it’s like to be the person called to clean up after crime scenes, and I guess in a way I did. I just wasn’t expecting Sandra. I learned a lot from reading this book and highly recommend it (but check trigger warnings before reading!).
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mcallima's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative medium-paced

4.0

Fascinating life of a woman and how that life led her to be a trauma cleaner. It's really fascinating that the trauma and disorder in her own life, from childhood through adulthood, really led to her this occupation. She handled her clients with great care and compassion, when most of society had written them off. I think her own experiences allowed her to have that empathy and to be able to see a huge (oftentimes disgusting) mess and know how to fix it without becoming overwhelmed. This is a story of compassion, resiliency, and the human condition.
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gab_rielle's review against another edition

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inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

I loved this book. It was an incredible well written biography that did really well tackling the issue of how can an author acknowledge their bias. I think that the author did this in such a clever way. 

I also think it tackled the issues of trauma really well with compassion in every chapter. I think it acknowledged how messy and complicated even good people are. 

I will say that I think there should have been a lot more content warnings. The child abuse and rape scene were so explicit. I do think it was more manageable than other examples because this was shown as the past. This was just part of Sandra's narrative and she is not defined by it. 
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vicki_pittman's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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myreaderacct's review against another edition

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hopeful reflective fast-paced

4.5

I went into the Trauma Cleaner like most readers I expect did--interested in the stories of crime scene and hoarding clean ups.  While the book does cover those, its main focus is the titular one woman.  Krasnostein does an excellent job of telling Sandra Pankhurst's story, and deftly balances her flaws and triumphs to present her as a well-rounded, complicated woman.  She does a similar job covering the owners of the houses being cleaned, showcasing them with compassion and interest.  My only quibble is that the book is relatively short--I was left wanting to know much more, not only about Sandra but also her clients.   Still, I highly enjoyed the book, and look forward to diving into Krasnostein's other work. 
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miggyfool's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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jehangel's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

4.5

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mjadeh's review against another edition

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emotional reflective

4.0

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jourdanicus's review against another edition

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challenging reflective medium-paced

4.0

Not really sure how to rate this one, but I think I can give it a 4. This wasn't what I expected (not in a bad way) - I didn't realize it was a biography and not a memoir!

I also expected more gory and gross descriptions of trauma cleanings. Instead, I was given a compassionate and empathetic reflection on the human condition, what it means to be connected, and what can happen to us if we lack connection with other people.

Honestly I think this book was more beautiful than I could appreciate.

There was definitely some language regarding gender that some people might find dated. But I trust that the author, in working so closely with Sandra, reflected Sandra's experience of herself in a way of which Sandra would approve.

I also could have used some sort of warning before the fairly graphic description of Sandra's experience of sexual assault, but I've come not to expect content warnings in books more than a couple years old at this point.
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