Published: 2022
Author: Jennette McCurdy
Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Autobiography, Mental Health, Adult, Contemporary
Audience (Grade Levels): Grades 11-12; Adult
Number of Stars: 5-Stars
Goodreads Link: I’m Glad My Mom Died
Triggers: Abuse, descriptions of eating disorders, dating violence, domestic violence
Review By: Evan Waugh
Publisher’s Summary
A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life.
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,” eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?” She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.
In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly, she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!”), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.
Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.
Review
Most secondary students are too young to remember the hit Nickelodeon TV show iCarly, which ran from 2007 to late 2012. These students are the right age, however, to remember iCarly’s spinoff, Sam and Cat, which premiered in 2013. Both television shows feature author Jennette McCurdy as the wise–cracking Sam Puckett, a television persona that contrasts with McCurdy’s off-screen personality. McCurdy, now 30, details the fraught relationship between these two identities, as well as her trajectory towards child and teenage superstardom, which was choreographed by her overbearing and abusive mother, Debra McCurdy.
In her memoir, McCurdy writes in a language that is accessible, yet skilled, conveying her emotional experiences with stunning precision. McCurdy does not mince words when relating the hardships that she has experienced in life, conveying the sordid details of her struggles with mental illness, various eating disorders, and the emotional and physical abuse that she experienced at the hands of her mother. While reading McCurdy’s memoir, one cannot help but feel like an interloper at times, bearing witness to one’s pain and struggle. But it’s this pain and struggle that McCurdy is looking to highlight, throwing open the doors on sensitive topics at once taboo and painful in hopes of shining a light on struggles that are often experienced in silence. McCurdy’s memoir presents audiences with the experience so often referred to as windows and mirrors, where one learns about a new set of circumstances or sees their own depicted with such brutal honesty. However, the details of McCurdy’s lived experiences might be too much, as I had to tell several people that I know who are actively recovering from eating disorders.
Jennette McCurdy is an amazing new literary talent, one who will likely live up to the precedents set by her Californian forebears: Joan Didion and Carrie Fisher, to name a few, who witnessed and experienced love, loss, and pain and told their respective stories unflinchingly and gracefully.
Classroom & Curricular Connections
- Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) / Mental Health: This memoir serves as a powerful “windows and mirrors” text for older high school students, illuminating sensitive topics like mental illness, severe eating disorders, and emotional/physical abuse. It provides a raw, honest framework for discussing resilience, recovery, and setting healthy emotional boundaries.
- ELA / Memoir & Biography: The text offers a brilliant masterclass in narrative voice, tone, and the use of dark humor to navigate personal trauma. Students can analyze how McCurdy balances accessibility with sophisticated emotional precision to paint a vivid picture of her lived experiences.
Readalikes
- Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
- The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
