# Read the first page of I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy Read the opening of I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy free, no signup. A former child star recounts her mother's controlling abusive love. - Page: https://uncovered.ink/read/im-glad-my-mom-died-jennette-mccurdy - Genre: Memoir - Year: 2022 - ISBN: 9781982185848 - Read it blind (cover and title hidden): https://uncovered.ink/?b=9781982185848&s=read-page - Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/125786/9781982185848 - Borrow: https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=9781982185848 ## The opening The present in front of me is wrapped in Christmas paper even though it’s the end of June. We have so much paper left over from the holidays because Grandpa got the dozen-roll set from Sam’s Club even though Mom told him a million times that it wasn’t even that good of a deal. I peel—don’t rip—off the paper, because I know Mom likes to save a wrapping paper scrap from every present, and if I rip instead of peel, the paper won’t be as intact as she’d like it to be. Dustin says Mom’s a hoarder, but Mom says she just likes to preserve the memories of things. So I peel. I look up at everyone watching. Grandma’s there, with her poofy perm and her button nose and her intensity, the same intensity that always comes out when she’s watching someone open a present. She’s so invested in where gifts come from, the price of them, whether they were on sale or not. She must know these things. Grandpa’s watching too, and snapping pictures while he does. I hate having my picture taken, but Grandpa loves taking them. And there’s no stopping a grandpa who loves something. Like how Mom tells him to stop eating his heaping bowl of Tillamook Vanilla Bean Ice Cream every night before bed because it won’t do any good for his already failing heart, but he won’t. He won’t stop eating his Tillamook and he won’t stop snapping his pictures. I’d almost be mad if I didn’t love him so much. Dad’s there, half-asleep like always. Mom keeps nudging him and whispering to him that she’s really not convinced his thyroid is normal, then Dad says “my thyroid’s fine” in an irritated way and goes back to being half-asleep five seconds later. This is their usual dynamic. Either this or an all-out scream-fight. I prefer this. Marcus, Dustin, and Scottie are there too. I love all of them for different reasons. Marcus is so responsible, so reliable. I guess this makes sense since he’s basically an adult—he’s fifteen—but even so, he seems to have a sturdiness to him that I haven’t seen in many other adults around me. I love Dustin even though he seems a bit annoyed by me most of the time. I love that he’s good at drawing and history and geography, three things I’m terrible at. I try to compliment him a lot on the things he’s good at, but he calls me a brownnoser. I’m not sure what that is exactly, but I can tell it’s an insult by the way he says it. Even so, I’m pretty sure he secretly appreciates the compliments. I love Scottie because he’s nostalgic. I learned that word in the Vocabulary Cartoons book Mom reads to us every day, because she homeschools us, and now I try to use it at least once a day so I don’t forget it. It really does apply to Scottie. “A sentimentality for the past.” That’s definitely what he has, even though he’s only nine so doesn’t have much of a past. Scottie cries at the end of Christmas and the end of birthdays and the end of Halloween and sometimes at the end of a regular day. He cries because he’s sad that it’s over, and even though it barely is over, he’s already yearning for it. “Yearning” is another word I learned in Vocabulary Cartoons. Mom’s watching too. Oh, Mom. She’s so beautiful. She doesn’t think she is, which is probably why she spends an hour doing her hair and makeup every day, even if she’s just going to the grocery store. It doesn’t make sense to me. I swear she looks better without that stuff. More natural. You can see her skin. Her eyes. Her. Instead she covers it all up. ## Books with a similar feel - [Born a Crime by Trevor Noah](https://uncovered.ink/read/born-a-crime-trevor-noah.md) - [Heavy by Kiese Laymon](https://uncovered.ink/read/heavy-kiese-laymon.md) - [Educated by Tara Westover](https://uncovered.ink/read/educated-tara-westover.md) - [Wild by Cheryl Strayed](https://uncovered.ink/read/wild-cheryl-strayed.md) - [I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou](https://uncovered.ink/read/i-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings-maya-angelou.md) - [Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall & Lisa Pulitzer](https://uncovered.ink/read/stolen-innocence-elissa-wall-and-lisa-pulitzer.md) --- Source: Uncovered (https://uncovered.ink). A short sample shown for reading and discovery. Rights holders can request removal at https://uncovered.ink/takedown.