Et cetera : Library Book Review: I'm Glad My Mom Died

I'm Glad My Mom Died

By Jeannette McCurdy

Reviewed by Connie Bennett, Vinton Public Library Clerk

Biography

This book has been heavily hyped by the media, and oft-requested in the last few months at the library. In my opinion, it has no redeeming qualities.

Jeannette McCurdy, in case you didn't know, was a small-time child star on a couple of Nickelodeon programs ("iCarly" and "Sam and Kat"). Now retired, she takes to the written page to gain sympathy for her "hard life". Granted, her Mother had mental problems, which affected the author's childhood. Mother had always dreamed of being a star and was determined to make her daughter what she never was. McCurdy was emotionally and mentally abused, pushed into stardom at a young age, and forced into classes for acting, dancing, and singing. She was forced to audition against her will, and was constantly belittled by her Mother, who at the same time, clung to her and was unnaturally affectionate.

Starting off innocently enough, I thought this would be a story of a girl who made it big despite all odds and rose above her upbringing to become a TV star, a country singer, and now, a podcaster, director, and actress in a one-woman show. Instead, it fizzled into a self-aggrandizing "poor me" book, with questionable language abounding. I read it in a few hours, hours that I now feel were wasted. On television, "Sam" was such a funny, likable, but naughty kid. I can't look at her the same way now! Thumbs firmly down on this one.

Published August 2022

Simon and Schuster

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