This book split me in two; the emotional journey was intense and sometimes hard to go on; but I appreciated that these things do have to talked about to take away the stigma surrounding them. It was too hard for me to finish but that is my own personal journey not a reflection on the author.

Oof, this was a lot tougher to get through than I expected. I knew it would be an emotional memoir, but it felt a bit like wading through muck. Can't give a negative review because it just wasn't my thing. I DNF.

Surprisingly enjoyable read. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it but I did. Definitely worth the star rating - looking forward to more.

thank you to NetGalley and Brown Paper Press for an e-ARC of this story!

3 stars

beautifully honest, earnest memoir on the author's journey with infertility and cancer. my only issues really lie with the topic of adoption as someone who disagrees with the use of humans as a commodity/good to fulfill needs. however, this is a differing opinion and not something that ultimately brings down the story as a whole as cheryl and her partner explore an open adoption process which was really interesting to get insight to.

overall, would recommend this memoir!

This book brought so many emotions to me , it was very moving and a rollercoaster of a read. I admit to it bringing a to lump to my throat more then once.

It covers so many topics including cancer, miscarriage, use of homophobic slurs, body checking, infertility, eating disorders, mentions of death, interracial adoption and relationship problems.

The author writes from the heart and at times you can feel the pain in her words and just want to hug her.

I highly recommended this book but beware it will leave you feeling emotional.

This raw memoir of struggles - with fertility, relationship strain, coming of age, desire for parenthood and breast cancer is aptly titled. Cheryl Klein exposes her heartache and frequent crying. She is self-absorbed and demanding - but also seems to appreciate this truth and never shies away from it. She is always trying - slipping - trying again. This is a good read for those who feel like “What next?” Is their current life struggle.
Her desire to have a child whether through assisted fertility and then adoption is depicted in the roller coaster of that process.

Questo libro mi ha fatto piangere e disperare, ma allo stesso tempo mi ha dato la forza di andare avanti e riflettere. Concede diversi spunti di riflessione interessanti.

Extremely thankful to NetGalley and Brown Paper Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Phew! This was hard to read! Not because of the writing, which was smooth and great, but because of its content. I think that if you are too sensitive about the topics that this touches you should definitely think about it twice. Please, do. And if you are truly interested in this type of memoir and/or picked up your attention, check trigger warnings.

In general terms, this was a really good book. It was visceral, raw and painful (especially if you have had similar experiences) with an amazing writing style. I give it 3 stars because I felt too overwhelmed while reading it and my experience as a reader affects my punctuation. However, if I want to be more objevtive, this deserves a 4. Defenitely keeping an eye on Cheryl E. Klein. Very talented.

The amount of times I cried during this. The heartbreak. My own memories with a body that's betrayed me time and time again. It's rough. Please check trigger warnings.

First things first, I need to make it known that I liked this book. I say that because of my next statement. This book made me uncomfortable at times and gave me anxiety! The author worried so much that I was getting second hand anxiety from reading it. There were times when I felt sad for her, times when I couldn’t help but question her decision making, but ultimately I just wanted her to get through it. Knowing this is about another person’s real life experiences probably heightened my anxiety because it is all true, and no one wants to see other people experience tragedy. I want to recommend this book to readers, but I want to caution you to be ready to feel your feelings!

This comes out on September 20th from @brownpaperpress. ARC copy provided by @netgalley. @cherylekleinstories #Crybaby #nonfiction #memoir #lgbtq #lgbtqia #pride #wlw #sapphicstory #queerbookclub #queerbookstagram #queerrepresentationmatters #lesbian #literature #queerlit

This was a great read - super easy and flowed so nicely. I raced through it which is always a good sign!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was so incredibly emotional and moving. I applaud the author for opening up regarding some of her deepest and most traumatic experiences, and feel grateful that I was able to learn about her story as a lesbian battling cancer and yearning for a child. While the story itself is not flawless, as the pacing sometimes felt inconsistent, it did employ stereotypes for a few of the people mentioned, and the language surrounding the concept of adoption wasn't always perfect, I understand that this may have been due to the author's perspective on the events that unfolded. I do appreciate how she emphasized that every character was deeply flawed, and wasn't afraid to point out her own faults. If you are the kind of person who enjoys memoirs that are so deeply sad you'll have to put it down and take a break several times, then I'd highly recommend.

Content Warnings: cancer, miscarriage, use of homophobic slurs, body checking, infertility, eating disorders, mentions of death, interracial adoption

such an incredibly moving and touching book about the hell that many people go through. full review to come.

Have you ever had that friend who starts to tell a story and then goes off on a tangent only to circle back to the story and so it goes...? That was Crybaby for me.

It's raw and real and you're on the journey of the main story of Klein's desire to have a baby and the challenges of infertility and then the news of breast cancer and all that does to her relationships, with her significant other and their friends and family. What it did to her...

And so at times I wondered if it could have been shorter, but what would you leave out in the story of your life where all those moments brought you to the final page? What would we miss if we're not included in all of it, and so I just enjoyed the journey.

I really appreciated the candor in this book and if you enjoy memoirs then you may also enjoy this one.

I do not have enough words to express how much soul and emotions this book packs. When your plan gets disrupted and the world comes crashing in, there's not much you can do and this book picks this up and talks about it. The trials and tribulations, the emotions and the rawness with all of it's intensity. An excellent book!

There are two things that other reviewers have pointed out about this book which I think need addressing.

Firstly, some people have taken umbrage with the fact that this book isn't 'emotional' enough. That Klein discusses her - objectively traumatic and tragic - life experiences with humour, often so dark as to border upon pitch black, and that she doesn't dwell infinitely in the quagmire of misery as all women who suffer should. Frankly, this is absolute nonsense. To accuse this book of lacking emotion, just because its primary emotion isn't unbridled anguish, is to reveal a deep misunderstanding of how it is to experience trauma and to come out the other side. Even in the middle of absolute, unfathomable pain, there is light. Often, it's the only way you can survive the dark. To quote the most cliched phrase of all time, if you don't laugh, you'll cry. Klein does plenty of both in this book. Even waving aside the notion that it's somehow appropriate to judge someone for how they choose to convey their own trauma, it's just nonsense to say that someone owes you relentless misery for you to appreciate the depth of their suffering. They don't.

Secondly, others have expressed concern at the fact that Klein and her partner seemed to choose adoption as a last resort after their fertility treatments didn't work. Again, this to me reveals a misreading of the text. At no point is adoption here presented as being second best to having a biological child. It was pretty obvious to me that they chose to go through fertility treatments first as they knew that the adoption process would likely be much longer, incredibly expensive and emotionally fraught, and that it wasn't a case of considering a baby of adoption some kind of 'commodity', but an awareness of the adoption process as a (necessarily) difficult, arduous one, which Klein didn't initially feel emotionally equipped to cope with. I think it's disingenuous to suggest that Klein and her partner went into the adoption process for the wrong reasons.

With that out of the way: this book. There is no such thing as the perfect book, and of course this one has its faults. The structure was a little off; sometimes Klein moves too fluidly through time and you lose track of where you are. There are a few clangers in here - the decision to quote a Black woman's speech in an overly emphasised rendering of AAVE, when no-one else in the book is ever quoted in dialect, was a poor choice, and Klein's wondering if her respect of a Black woman is an example of the Magical Negro trope feels like a concerted effort to prove her own wokeness in a way that actually suggests the opposite. Most of these were brief instances, rather than anything structural.

Beyond those, this is a book that I absolutely loved. The writing is exquisite. Klein writes with a wry humour and has the ability to turn the mundane or the comical into something heartbreaking by reframing it through the lens of what happens after. She's a master of pathos. I felt for her entirely.

Klein is very, very honest about her own flaws here, in ways that few memoirs are. She doesn't justify her poor behaviour, or her irrational anger at her friends who've made the grievous error of being fertile / not having cancer / having stable jobs and houses. She acknowledges that her anger is envy, and that it's inappropriate, but that she feels it anyway. She accepts that she is not always a good person, but that neither is anyone else. Everyone within the pages of this memoir is complex. Klein's partner is prone to enormous insensitivity, and Klein is equally prone to selfishness. I appreciated the reality of the central relationship here. It felt authentic and honest.

This is not a how-to guide on surviving repeated and complex trauma, but it's a rare, generous account of how one person managed it. This one is going to stick with me for a very, very long time, and I'm inordinately glad that I read it.

I appreciate NetGalley and Cheryl E. Klein for allowing me to read this book early for an honest review.

The story that is being told in this book caught my attention from the beginning. Someone who was diagnosed with cancer while also praying she would have a child. This was something I believed I would be very interested in. Unfortunately, the way that the story is written didn't catch my attention. The author jumps from topic to topic multiple times in one chapter and I had a hard time keeping up with where the story was going. I didn't feel like it flowed nicely. The parts of the book that I felt like I would go into with absolute sorrow and crying, didn't tug at my heart strings. With the topics in this book, I really believed I would be crying or genuinely upset about the issues that arose in her life and I just didn't feel enough, It's not that I don't feel for the author, because cancer runs in my family and the way it tears someone apart emotionally and physically is terrible and I do not wish it on anyone. I just feel that certain parts could have used a lot more emotion to tug at the heartstrings of the readers, However, the story was easy to read and I agreed with some of the ideas and values that the author had.

I wish I could have finished this book, but about 30% into the book I had to stop reading. As a reader, it is hard for me to continue when I am not 100% invested in the book and absolutely drawn in. The writing style and lack of deep emotion are what threw me off and I, unfortunately, had to DNF.

2.5 stars*

I have complicated feelings about this. I enjoyed the writing style and it was entertaining to read, it was very easy.

I found the infertility and cancer sections to be incredibly insightful (as I haven’t gone through either). It must’ve been horrific experiences.

I do have experience with adoption and this is where most of my complicated feelings lie. I believe that adoption isn’t a tool for building a family, for a way to have a child since you can’t have your own. It is to provide a safe home for a child, which is rarely the intent. Adoption is trauma. A lot of people who take the route of adoption do not care about the process, all they want is a baby. Babies are not commodities, they’re humans. This is a core belief of mine, and the way its talked about goes against mine. The line “if you decided to raise your baby, those are completely valid choices, and you have our blessing” rubs me the wrong way, it’s not your place to give a ‘blessing’, it isn’t your child, it is the birth mums.

Another thing is the line “maybe she had borderline personality disorder” also rubs me the wrong way. BPD is something that impacts a lot of people, and this comment as it refers to a disagreement, adds further stigma to the disorder. (A disorder I have). It isn’t okay to hypothesise about peoples mental health, especially when it comes to BPD which is an incredibly stigmatised disorder.

These are two main issues I have with this book. I understand it is a memoir, so that these are events and actual things that were thought and beliefs held. Because of that, especially when it comes to the BPD part, you have to be careful about what you say and how you portray things. The adoption part is just differing opinion and you can’t change fundamental beliefs. I hope the author is able to reflect on the issues I raise and contemplate whether this is what they want to portray.

This is a nonfiction lgbt memoir that covers many heavy topics that I received as an eARC from NetGalley. This book was absolutely heartbreakingly raw and vulnerable. The author has experienced so many tragedies and hardships in their life that I and many others can relate to. I unfortunately had to DNF as it was a bit too heavy for me emotionally but I would still recommend this, just make sure you read the trigger warnings!

TWs - Breast Cancer; Infertility; Miscarriage; Suicide (mentioned, past, parental); Weight checking; Mammogram; Medical detail; Interracial Adoption; Death (past, neighbour/friend); Ovarian Cancer (past, parental); Chemo (past, parental); Alcohol; Gun Violence (past, brief mention); Gangs (past, brief mention); Pregnancy; Heroin (passively mentioned); Child death (past, mentioned, student’s sibling); Periods; Gay Marriage Laws; Cussing; Gentrification (briefly mentioned); Dietary content; Thin-idealisation; Lesbian slur (dyke); Eating disorder (Anorexia, BED); Needles

Crybaby was heartbreaking and inspiring. Cheryl Klein’s life has had a lot of difficulties and this memoir shows them. It has something that pretty much everyone could have gone through or has gone through in their life. There was so much that she wanted but things just kept getting in the way and life was hard, from infertility, being queer and eating disorders (along with other things), this has a lot of things that people can relate to and learn from.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.