Wonderful book!

When this book 1st came out I wanted to read it, but I am not much of a reader so I’ve always wanted to listen to it. But no where could I find it on tape. So when audible came out with it I knew right away I wanted to snatch it up so I could listen to it, because of all the reviews I heard were negative and said the only reason Christina Crawford wrote this book was to get money.! I heard her on all the talkshows Phil Donahue and Oprah Winfrey, and her story was quite compelling to me. Now listening to her story I can safely say and unfortunately say I hope that Joan Crawford is burning in HELL!! To treat any person and especially any child like she treated her children that is the only place for HER! Anyways about the book, I feel sorry for what Christina and her brother Christopher had to go through living under the thumb of someone who Was so bipolar and saw shadows working around every corner. I do not know how she’s made it to the age of 80 but I must say God bless her for making it this long, and I hope she Lives to be 100. Get this book and you won’t be disappointed

9 people found this helpful

Sad Story

This is an in-depth look at life as one of Joan Crawford's adopted children, a look that was covered only superficially in the 1981 movie, Mommie Dearest.

Crawford's frenzied search for babies to adopt was probably a combination of a need to cater to appearances, as well as a search for unquestioning love. That babies grow into people seems to have escaped her notice until it was too late, and she found herself dealing with independent little thinkers.

Christina's detailed description of events that occurred all those years ago compromises her narrative, details such as her memory of the moonlight playing on the lower portion of someone's face during a conversation that took place in 1948. However, the core of her story rings true; you couldn't make this stuff up. Christina and her brother Chris surely lived the entire nasty experience.

Tavia Gilbert's narration is fine, especially her rendition of Joan Crawford, but she emotes to the point of listener irritation when she slips into high-pitched whining descriptions of particularly emotional scenes.

6 people found this helpful

An astonishing true story

It is hard to express how powerful this story is and how long I have waited for this audiobook. It is updated and includes sections not in the original publication. These additions clear up some of the initial criticisms that were made of the author and also explain why she excluded them initially. Anyone who claims the author is is a fabulist is simply protecting an abuser, because victims don't make up stories this detailed with such clarity. There are claims Ms Crawford did a "hatchet job" on Joan Crawford but time has only proven that what she wrote was clearly true. A deeply insecure woman, driven to be successful but with so much baggage that it makes her an existential threat to the child she feels she controls. I also want to commend Tavia Gilbert who had a wonderful brittleness to her voice that really captured the pain that Christina Crawford experienced. The whole thing is very powerful, very compelling and very very painful. There are moments of bitterness (why shouldn't there be) but the updated "In Memoriam" section is deeply personal and deeply human. This is a woman who was a victim and her story is truly powerful. I recommend it.

5 people found this helpful

Boring

Horrible choice for a voice, fake and robotic. Takes away anything that may be interesting about the story, making it sound boring and unrelative. I couldn't finish it.

2 people found this helpful

Not What I Expected

First, I really wish that Christina Crawford could have narrated her own story, because I really think that there were chapters where Tavia Gilbert’s narration REALLY made C.C. seem a bit too much like an entitled millennial. It’s a believable story…if you come from a similar background. Having seen the film before ever reading the book, I was expecting a lot more of a smear campaign, but I feel like the writer was more than fair to her adoptive mother. There were apparently many scenes of the film that never occurred in the book (like the hair cutting scene or being beaten with the can of Comet scrub powder in the bathroom). I want to listen to the audiobook called “Survivor” but am kind of dreading another narration by Tavia Gilbert. I hope she does that book better justice.

2 people found this helpful

No More Wire Hangers Ever!!

I had seen the movie quite a few times and this is the first time I have read the book. Obviously Hollywood did as it always does and didn't follow the book much. The story is very interesting and very sad. I know that thier may be skeptics of the story, but we weren't there so we don't know for sure how much of the story is true. It's just so hard to understand why Joan would act like that if she really wanted children.

2 people found this helpful

Fascinating, you never really know someone.

I had seen bits and pieces of the television movie, over the years, never really understanding it. Finding out it was based on a book, I wanted to read it. I never could find it in any of my local libraries, and Amazon was not yet a thing. I kinda put it in the back of my mind. Now in the age of "1-click" buying, late one night I found "Mommy Dearest" on Audible. I grabbed it. It was truly Fascinating.

1 person found this helpful

FINALLY GOT THE STORY!!

Joan Crawford has been one of my favorite Movie stars since I was a kid. Read all kinds of the book reviews when Mommie Dearest first came out. Had a copy of the book but never read it. I was afraid it would change the Movie Star image I had of Joan Crawford. Now 40 years later I heard the book/story on Audible for the first time. I feel very deeply for Christina Crawford & her brother! Although Joan Crawford was a horrible mother, she was a glamorous and great Movie Star! GREAT BOOK! God bless Christina Crawford!!!

did I miss something?

My mommy was mean to me. boohoo. I had to eat meat everyday and clean my room. mommy liked to sleep late. spoiled much?? maybe my childhood was worse than I thought. Can I write a book about it?
I didn't enjoy this book. If you didn't have a dressing room, maids, cooks, gardeners or private school you may not either. we're you made to eat your dinner? I was ..
poor thing dreamed of an orphanage. aww

Narration elevates the story

Christina Crawford, the oldest of Joan Crawford’s 4 adopted blonde-haired; blue-eyed adopted children allegedly bought on the black market because she’s wasn’t fit to adopt through the traditional route. Christina writes that her mother was physically and emotionally abusive due to alcoholism, mental illness and meanness. You can read Joan Crawford’s own history to see partially why she was the way she was. I thought Christina’s POV did show Joan some empathy and love, more than I would have. The twins, much younger than Christina and brother Christopher, dispute the abuse though the may not have seen what happened as the older kids went to boarding school at age ten.

This is a reread from childhood. I read MOMMIE DEAREST when it first came out in 1978, watched the movie (bad movie, unintentionally campy) and have seen documentaries. It’s an interesting read, not dry like many memoirs and autobiographies written around that time.

The audiobook is wonderfully narrated.