Thank you Pishukin Press, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Audiobooks for allowing me to read and review Things Nobody Knows But Me on NetGalley.

Stars: 3

Three stars as this is a memoir. I cannot rate the content.

The author narrates her book and does a good job. At no point did I wish a professional narrator was employed.

The book experience is similar to an old rollercoaster. emotions run the gamut. The synopsis is real and the author kept her telling light. She speaks of dark times (arranged marriage) but doesn't go into gruesome details -- she lives with mental illness, cultural differences, religious practices, and abuse all while trying to grow up.

I found the book sad and informative. This is a story of survival. Her legacy will be her strength.

This doesn't make you feel good. It makes you feel and think. I would recommend this to mature readers.

Published: 10/05/23

This was an interesting memoir about a woman dealing with her mother's mental illness and the impact it had on her life growing up. The story was well written, but the narration was very slow. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to listen to this audiobook.

This was the mentally ill mother daughter story I didn't know I needed. I was surprised by the humor layered throughout such a deeply impactful book.

I enjoyed this biography of a very human experience: The reflections of an adult who grew up living with a mentally Ill parent and the impact it had on her and those around her. There was also interesting information about her country of origin Serbia and the then Yugoslavia, A courageous book that can help others living with bipolar family members.
I recomend listening at 1.25 speed as the narrator speaks slowly.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to listen to ARC of this memoir.

I enjoy listening to memoirs that are read by the author because it allows me to hear the emotion exactly as the writer intended it. So I was surprised that this book was flat at times. The narration didn't have the emotional inflections I would have hoped from the person who had lived it. Billed as this love story from daughter to mother - I truly did not get that from the story.

This story is initially very engaging. I was not familiar with the author and so chose it based on the synopsis. I don't think it is truly accurate in that this book was about way more than the mom's mental illness. There are also dark themes of abuse and victimization that run through the story.

Memoirs, I recognize, are often not linear. But I think this book had isuses with flow. Because the author rarely used dates or ages it was often very confusing to know where she was in her story since it did jump back and forth. I do wish she had chosen a more linear format so that we could follow - especially her mother's story. Details would pop up and I would find myself thinking "Wait, what?" For example, the discussion of her older sister which gets flung in late in the story and then never really gets explored. Or the mention of her mother's first husband without tying up what ocurred in the relationship. Other aspects felt as though they were thrown in purely for shock value and did not add to the intimate portrait that the author was attempting to create.

Much of the book is really a story about the author's mom and her lived experiences. I did find the cultural differences between Australia and Yugoslavia/Bosnia to be very interesting and I was grateful for the anchoring in time when the author discussed Bill Clinton and the Bosnian war to help explain some of the cultural norms of the time.

Overall this is a well written, interesting story that has some issues with flow and organization that hamper the reader's ability to follow and engage.

I received the audio ARC book from Netgally in exchange for an honest review.

This is autobiographical book, about the author growing up in two very different worlds, One is Bosnia and the other one is Australia. We mostly follow the author and her mother. We do read about the men in their lives and how they affect the outcomes of their choices, and moves.

Really well written and engaging story telling. I have never heard of the author, but after reading and listening to her voice telling us her own story, I’m very interested into reading more of her books.

Love how the memories of her mother get easily intertwined with her present, I love how many times she changes her point of view and gets a deeper understanding on the whys of her mum’s motivations.

I highly recommend this one.

At times harrowing and always brutally honest, Amra recounts her life story to date. Sharing the pain of losing her father at a young age, the impact of her mother's mental health struggles and challenges of being raised within two very different cultures, Things Nobody Knows But Me had me feeling many of Amra's experiences - I particularly winced when she recounted having a scab peeled off her skin!

Thought provoking and covering a lot of challenging topics. This was an interesting and brave story told by Amra herself.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and Amra Pajalic for this amazing ARC I received for my honest review.

Things Nobody Knows But Me” by Amra Pajalic is a deeply personal memoir that delves into the author’s experiences growing up as a Bosnian refugee in Australia. Her honest and intimate storytelling takes readers on a journey through her childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, exploring themes of identity, family, trauma, and the search for belonging.

The memoir is structured around moments in Pajalić’s life, showing her resilience and determination in the face of diversity.

It helps you understand about mental health and bipolar disorder. Pretty sad but beautifully written, truthful and honest. I have not read a book like this before. I wouldn’t mind reading more of this author.

Honestly hated this book & the narrator made it drag so bad. Honestly could have used a couple trigger warnings too; I felt blind sided.

The cruelty of life is told through the innocent look of a child, who fought against a system, a community, and a family that didn't understand her, but in the midst of so much pain and suffering Amra learned to be happy in her own way. The impact that her mother's psychiatric illness had on her life, aes so powdered that the difference becane her normality. I don't know how it was possible that I didn't shed a single tear when I came into contact with this story. But my eyes were, always wide open with shock. The shock with which pedophilia and sexual abuse are so acceptable in poor communities. I felt a very big culture shock when I learned Amra's story, and the fact of knowing that this really happened to Amra, shocked me even more. When I finished this story I just wanted to give Amra a hug. As for negative points, I don't have much to say, in general I liked it, the only thing I would like to say was that I didn't get hooked, it wasn't an addictive read. I finish by thanking Netgalley for the opportunity it gave me to make a sincere review of this work.
#netgalle, #thingsnobodyknowsbutme, #amrapajalic, #truestory, #trueventes

TW: Sexual Abuse, Child Abuse, Rape

Between the voices her mother hears and her erratic behaviors, Amra can tell that her mother is different. Her mother also has a difficult time finding a supportive man, and often brings obsessive or controlling men into their lives. They live in Australia, but spend time with their family in Bosnia, causing Amra to grow up in two very different settings. The two of them have a strained relationship, and this memoir is about their struggles to be a family together.

I dislike rating a memoir low because it is someone’s life story and is very personal to them. However, the way the story is conveyed in this book just wasn’t engaging. The way it’s written is dry and the author’s emotions never shone through the words.

It was difficult to tell if things were occurring chronologically or not as there is rarely a mention of the date. This made the work feel disjointed and detracted from its flow. I also disliked that this work was mostly just a laundry list of events. There were many sad and painful things that occurred throughout the work that were talked about then moved on from. There was no incorporation of how these events affected her, what she thought about them, or how they influenced other decisions or aspects of her life. This left me wanting much more and created a dry, emotionless, and unattached read.

Part of what makes memoirs so moving is learning about other people’s lives and getting a glimpse into them as people and emotional beings, and this book was lacking that. It was fine overall but left me wanting more. My thanks to NetGalley and Pishukin Press for allowing me to read this work, which will be published October 5th, 2023. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Amra tells about what it was like for her to have a mother with Bipolar and how it shaped her life. Everyone that has to go through something like this deals with it differently.
There are parts that are sad, and parts that were happy.

Very compelling! I've been reading a lot of biographies recently and this is another excellent read.

Pajalic's memoir is about her family and childhood in Bonsnia and Australia. I was hooked from the first chapter, and found her writing style candid and conversational. She doesn't shy away from confronting sensitive topics such as her mother's disabling mental health issues, and various kinds of misogyny including domestic violence and sexual harassment. I didn't know a lot about Bosnia prior to reading this book, and I am now going to do some further research. It's fascinating to see how past conflicts extend through the time and have such an effect on the present day.

I received the eAudiobook from Net Galley in exchange from an honest review.

This is a love letter to her mother. So profound!
Amra walks you through her life’s journey as she deals with a mother struggling with a mental disability. The rawness of this journey compels you to experience her life through fear, innocence, strength, devotion and humor sharing with you intimate parts of her life with her mom, best friend and her attempt to understand her mother’s struggles.
Amra narrates her own story with a calm, soothing voice, great expression and at a pace that enables you to fall deeply into her life events.
Overall, this book allowed me to understand the difficulties of being raised in a relationship with her mom in need of help and guidance. A true picture of living with such a disability.
I greatly recommend this book to all types of readers. I could not walk away from this book. I look forward to more books by Amra Pajalic.
Thank you Amra and Pishukin Press for allowing me to read and review such an amazing book. My opinions are my own.

Review: This was a good book for audio, the author read it and did a wonderful job. She dove into the good and hard parts of her life with a lot of emotion.
Recommended For: Those who want a truthful memoir that includes mental illness of a parent. Also covers trauma the author experienced

Pajalic is a Bosnian raised in Australia in the 80s and 90s by a mother with Bipolar Disorder surrounded by a community that at times was supportive, and at times was abusive. Pajalic tells a brutal story of childhood disappointment, corporal punishment, abuse, and sexual assaults. This book is a trauma bomb.

I love memoir because I find truth to be more revealing and engaging than fiction in many cases and because in a memoir you know that no matter what is happening on the page the author survived to write the account. With that said, memoir is creative, the author chooses what to include and what to exclude and builds characters of the people the write about. The best memoirs find ways to engage in the beauty and love around them as well as the pain or trauma. This author chose to focus on the trauma, even the small moments of beauty that were chosen were smashed by some awful follow up event, often something related to sexual assault. The menace never lets up, and because of this the reader never really understands the love that kept the author in her community and attached to her family. Which is too bad. I am not advocating for sugar coating or excusing behavior by others, instead I want to see some moments of love and happiness that did not end in violence or punishment. Show us some good so we understand the love and duty.

Thank you to Pishukin Press and Netgalley for this audio ARC!

Thing Nobody Knows But Me is a memoir of Amra Pajalic, who was born in Australia to Bosnia immigrants. Her father dies very young, and she is raised by a mother who is struggling with Bipolar, with an emphasis on manic behavior. I was interested in this book from a mental health standpoint - Pajalic's mother begins her mental health struggles in the 80's when mental health was treated much differently than it was today. I did not realize that Pajalic's family would move back to Bosnia, and so from a mental health treatment standpoint, this gives a variety of experiences both in time and place.

The narration was very good - Pajalic's Australian accent is beautiful to listen to, as an American listener. I would highly recommend choosing the audio format if choosing which medium to read this book.

The overall flow of the book was odd. While it generally occurred chronologically, Pajalic rarely gave a year or age to help the reader understand when these stories were happening. While the book is called "Things Nobody Knows But Me," she is often writing about things that she would have no personal knowledge of, such as her mother or step father's experiences from before Pajalic was born. While I would place this as a memoir, it followed enough of her mother's experiences that it almost felt more of a dual memoir. Pajalic often wrote of how certain experiences made her mother feel - things she would not have known without her mother's input. I was sometimes a bit confused about who the main voice was supposed to be.

A quick content warning - this book has numerous instances of sexual abuse, particularly to children, randomly placed within. While I understand that these are experiences that factually occurred, Pajalic barely spoke of how these experiences affected her who whoever the violence occurred to, and I did not quite understand why she chose to include these experiences.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Pishukin Press for an audio copy of Things Nobody Knows But Me for an honest review.

This, basically, is the story of a young girl, the author Amra, who has a mentally ill mother. Many trials Amra has to face. Her mother is in and out of mental institutions, in and out of relationships. And how this affected the young girl throughout her life.

This was a solid memoir, and I thought the author did a great job telling her story.

Quite a harrowing read about growing up with a parent with mistreated, stigmatised mental health problems, living in a patriarchal society that dominates and controls its women, putting all the blame and responsibility on them.
This is quite a shocking book but you can see that most of the damaging behaviour stems from fear.

I would’ve liked to have seen more of what their lives are like now but this is a great book.

This an audio book that jumps backwards and forwards from Bosnia to Australia and back as early as the 40s to near present day, but mostly 70s to 90s. Sometimes I was confused by the timeline and which generation was being talked about. But I was intrigued and appalled in equal measure as I listened as a story of mental health issues, parental neglect, genicide and conflict and abuse unfolded. A young girl’s journey from child into adult hood and her relationship in particular with her mother. It captured the different cultures she lived within, and the changes in society. Unfortunately world conflicts seem to continue some of the struggles she went through. Thank you to Pishukin Publisher and NetGalley for the audio ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.