I appreciate the Feminist view on dealing with pain. I can apply several of these concepts to my life. The essay format made it easily palatable despite the heavy content.

I’m afraid I didn’t get on with this at all. The distancing, abstract academic language (e.g., “transnational feminist autoethnography,” “transnational feminist object,” “anamorphic apparatus”) got old very quickly. I didn’t read far enough to discover the nature of the author’s pain, but I had a hard time believing that anyone in actual physical distress could produce such a rambling fanciful piece. “Feminist enchantment”? I was not enchanted. I might not be “scarred” by attempting to engage with this, but it was painful enough—as far as reading goes—to encourage me to curtail the journey.

Sadly, this book was archived before I was able to read it. I didn’t read it quick enough on the NetGalley shelf app and am unable to give a review.

Sorry to the author, publisher, and NetGalley.

When I read the book outside of NetGalley, I will come back with a full review!

I can definitely see these tips being relevant in my life!

Thank you to the author and the publisher for this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

In her attempt to develop a novel theoretical approach with Scarred, L. Ayu Saraswati makes some key errors that result in a largely useless proposal. In particular, the text fails by collapsing psychological trauma and pain with physical pain, while only working from an experience – given this form of autoethnography – of psychological pain. Despite the reality that, as she notes, physical pain is shaped by psychological and cultural factors, there are objective elements to physical pain that such an analysis erases. This makes the text arguably harmful from a disability perspective, while the wildly narrow scope of the theory presented makes it virtually useless for future scholarly endeavors. This text seemed promising in premise but was a disappointment in execution.

While I appreciate what the author is trying to do in this ok book I don’t think it was executed well. While methods do need to expand, particularly in ethnography, this book felt at times like it was a disjointed word salad of academic terms. There’s a reason so many of the theory-heavy books follow a formula with a lit review, methods section, data, analysis, etc. This helps orient the reader otherwise we’re left flailing a bit, which is how I felt reading this book.

I really enjoyed my journey with this book. And the literary style? I was obsessed. I loved the writer's diction and I really appreciated her way of carrying our heavy content.
Scarred is the closest thing to a guide to how we can better deal and accept our pain. With a touch of a feminist approach, the author takes us on a journey of how one can extract power and strength from inevitable painful events.

I recommend this book to anyone going through hard times.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.