Morgan Parker talks about her depression and the brutal days of slavery which carries on through to the present. She writes about a number of subjects including her premature birth, growing up with white TV shows, Bill Crosby’s trial, black comedians, college in NYC, plantations and slave ships.

She asked her parents at 15 years old to see a therapist when she had thoughts of suicide. Since then, she has seen a number of psychiatrists. Now in her 30s, she takes antidepressants to battle the fear and anger that is constant.

This book is not an easy read for those who are white and pushed in a category of the slave owners years ago. I get it. It’s painful to read the news stories of Black people that are killed in the present without cause. It’s distressing and wrong when Blacks are emotionally and physically threatened, sabotaged and targeted in this country.

She wants it to stop. She has put all of her personal thoughts in these essays in hopes that it will bring change and enlighten others to see the pain that Black people feel. It’s been said that writing is a way of healing. Let’s hope this helps her and others to see the harsh truth.

My thanks to One World and NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy of this advanced book with an expected release date of March 12, 2024.

This book does an amazing job of capturing the trauma and beauty of being a black woman. The first chapter took me back. Y2K, 9/11, Spice girls, Nokia cellphones, razors in halloween candy. The main storyline of this book deals with finding and making sense of ones identity. Its also heavily on the subject of color, how the self she thought she had was given to her by somebody else.
Morgan Parker has spent her adulthood in therapy working through the feeling of alienation with every part of her life. Morgan is working through being single her whole life and her battle with depression at a young age. Morgan and her therapist discuss history and relationships to black americans from all eras. Topics go beyond beauty culture that excludes black women, even dabbles with Bill Cosby's trial against women and allegations.
You get what you pay for is a look into deep racial consciousness on mental well-being in america. This memoir is nostalgic and devastating put into essays that paint a picture of one black woman's views on her upbringing. And Morgans ability to tell the truth and deconstruct it all at the same time. Beautifully written and painfully nostalgic I give this 4 stars. For a better view please pick up this book to understand better others trials and tribulations.

“You Get What You Pay For" is a powerful memoir by Morgan Parker that is told through a collection of essays. In this collection of essays, Parker discusses recent and prior life events in America as well as experiences from her adolescence all the way into her adulthood in such an intimate way. I truly have not read anything like it. I found the way Parker was able to articulate her life in America not only as a woman but as a black woman to be very empowering and important to read. Parker’s writing was well crafted, thoughtful, critical and intelligent. I believe that her words will add value to everyone who reads them and I cannot wait to read more by her in the future.

Morgan Parker is a voice that is desperately important. In You Get What You Pay For, she writes a deeply personal and impactful memoir (in essays) confronting the complexities of being Black and a Woman in America. This is not poetry, but her words are breathtaking and startling. Just magnificently written. She writes essays completely dissecting American culture and the Black/Female experience within. I've never read a memoir quite like this one. She is critical, simultaneously gentle, exceptionally resonant and deeply intimate in her essays, and I think her words will be valuable to all.

"You Get What You Pay For" is a poignant and powerful collection of essays that delves into the psyche of poet and writer Morgan Parker. Dubbed a voice of her generation, Parker courageously opens up about her personal struggles, seeking to reconcile the profound resonance of her writing with the pervasive sense of alienation that permeates her life. From a lifelong journey through singleness to grappling with the shadows of depression, Parker lays bare the complexities of her experiences.

The narrative traces Parker's deep-seated loneliness to an underlying struggle to feel authentically secure with others, a struggle exacerbated by a historic hyperawareness rooted in the enduring effects of slavery. Through a series of intimate conversations with her therapist, readers are invited into the vulnerable spaces of Parker's mind, where she confronts not only her personal challenges but also the broader cultural history and relationship between America and its Black citizens.

Parker fearlessly explores topics such as the pervasive beauty standards that systematically exclude Black women, the cultural implications of Bill Cosby's downfall in a society built on acceptance through respectability, and the nuanced challenges of visibility, exemplified by the mischaracterizations of Serena Williams as both iconic and overly ambitious.

What sets this collection apart is Parker's razor-sharp wit and incisive observations. Each essay serves as a portal into a profound examination of racial consciousness and its profound impact on mental well-being in contemporary America. Balancing unflinching criticism with deeply personal anecdotes, "You Get What You Pay For" creates a devastating yet necessary memoir-in-essays.