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Mouthing the words
By turns harrowing and hilarious, this adroitly narrated tale re-creates the world in the imagination of Thelma. It's a world in which she can escape some of her more painful childhood realities, like those games her father likes to make her play, where he's the boss and she the naughty secretary. And her mother so fiercely favors her younger brother, the cherubic Willy, that Thelma finds herself perpetually in emotional exile. No wonder Thelma asks practically every adult she meets to adopt her. Along Thelma's bumpy way from a rural English village to Canada to a law degree at Oxford, she meets many potential parents and even makes some friends, but it is with the companions of her fertile imagination -- with the scaredy-baby Janawee, moody and timid Ginniger, and big, strong, stoic Heroin -- that Thelma finds comfort. With them, too, she loses an already tenuous connection to reality, though ultimately Thelma's spirit and humor prove to be as indomitable as her wit.
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First published January 1, 1999
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About the author
Camilla Gibb
21 books303 followersFrom the author's web site:
"Camilla Gibb, born in 1968, is the author of three novels, Mouthing the Words, The Petty Details of So-and-so's Life and Sweetness in the Belly, as well as numerous short stories, articles and reviews.
She was the winner of the Trillium Book Award in 2006, a Scotiabank Giller Prize short list nominee in 2005, winner of the City of Toronto Book Award in 2000 and the recipient of the CBC Canadian Literary Award for short fiction in 2001. Her books have been published in 18 countries and translated into 14 languages and she was named by the jury of the prestigious Orange Prize as one of 21 writers to watch in the new century.
Camilla was born in London, England, and grew up in Toronto, Canada. She has a B.A. in anthropology and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Toronto, completed her Ph.D. in social anthropology at Oxford University in 1997, and spent two years at the University of Toronto as a post-doctoral research fellow before becoming a full-time writer.
Camilla has been writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto where, for the past two years, she served as an adjunct faculty member of the English Department's MA in Creative Writing Program.
She is currently working on a new novel and divides her time between Toronto and London, England."
"Camilla Gibb, born in 1968, is the author of three novels, Mouthing the Words, The Petty Details of So-and-so's Life and Sweetness in the Belly, as well as numerous short stories, articles and reviews.
She was the winner of the Trillium Book Award in 2006, a Scotiabank Giller Prize short list nominee in 2005, winner of the City of Toronto Book Award in 2000 and the recipient of the CBC Canadian Literary Award for short fiction in 2001. Her books have been published in 18 countries and translated into 14 languages and she was named by the jury of the prestigious Orange Prize as one of 21 writers to watch in the new century.
Camilla was born in London, England, and grew up in Toronto, Canada. She has a B.A. in anthropology and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Toronto, completed her Ph.D. in social anthropology at Oxford University in 1997, and spent two years at the University of Toronto as a post-doctoral research fellow before becoming a full-time writer.
Camilla has been writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto where, for the past two years, she served as an adjunct faculty member of the English Department's MA in Creative Writing Program.
She is currently working on a new novel and divides her time between Toronto and London, England."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
February 9, 2012
From the look of this book, I was expecting casual young adult fiction, but it was neither a casual story nor YA lit. Relatively short, at only 238 pages, the novel was intense, serious with subtle touches of humor, and beautifully written. Gibb covers some intense subject matter, such as the sexual abuse and mental illness of the protagonist, and handles it adeptly — the protagonist’s emotional state is convincingly bleak, but without turning the novel into a suffocating wasteland.
Some quotes:
“I was born into a crowded room at St. Mary Abbot’s hospital, South Kensington, in 1968. Born in London into a month of nights and days only distinguishable form one another by degrees of grey. Born into a nation that regarded the delivery of new life as embarrassing and unseemly, that operated a National Health Service which viewed birth as a pathology necessitating a ten-day internment.
“In Grade One, when I was given a fresh clean notebook in which to write something called ‘My Autobiography,’ I wrote according to the certainty of the collective narrative: ‘I was born purple and dead. I was born in England,’ as if to imply that birthplace determined birth state. In fact, as my mother describes, it it may well have. I did not burst forth into being, I was pumped into existence by a machine. Although I was the result of premature ejaculation, I was not overly excited about being released into the world.” (pp. 10–11)
“Perhaps I’d missed the point or spoiled her one attempt at female bonding, but she rummaged around in the bathroom closet and thrust a box of tampons at me.
“‘Thanks, Mum,’ I said. ‘But I won’t be needing these.’ She does not realize that I have just decided never to have a period. No thank you very much, I am just not interested in going that route. You can take these straight back to wherever they came from.” (p. 86)
“ ‘You should do something with your hair,’ Binbecka has started to say to me. ‘It’s not becoming. Do something like mine. And clean your nails. What’s wrong with you, Thelma? Don’t you want boys to like you?’ she asks me.
“No. I don’t want to paint my lips in Silver City Pink, pull up my kilt and fold it over at the waist, or press my face to the wire fence and giggle through to the other side. I don’t understand this new language where I am supposed to say mean things about my friends like, ‘Oh my gawd, she’s like, such a bitch,’ and then spend three hours that night on the phone with her talking about boys. I don’t understand.” (p. 87)
“That was it for me. Since I couldn’t be adopted myself; since I couldn’t seem to embrace a religion or a lover because that would involve ghastly deeds for which I was quite unprepared; since I couldn’t adopt a child, or a cause, or a nation, I became a lawyer, or rather, I adopted the idea of the profession. It would take me many many more years to actually become a lawyer. I still had all my madness to get through, after all, but at least the declaration was the start of something. While everybody around me was so preoccupied with their bodies—their breasts, their exotic dancing, their ‘bonking’—I would devote myself to logical arguments and Faustian bargains. Of course it didn’t occur to me that as an anorexic I was probably the one most preoccupied with my body. I thought that I had transcended my body by refusing to yield to its basal demands. I wasn’t really going to make much of a lawyer until I could come to terms with the fact that I inhabited both a mind and a body. At least if I focused my mind I’d inhabit something.” (p. 113)
“ ‘I do have a date, as a matter of fact,’ I say. Just not the kind of date she imagines, where a guy picks me up in his car and I wear a miniskirt and heels and I listen to him talk about himself all night and then he pulls out his Visa and then his penis shortly thereafter and I feel like I can’t protest the latter because I haven’t protested the former.” (p. 201)
“We are moving in each other’s shadows, taking delicate steps at fifty-degree angles, peering out occasionally to catch the sun in each other’s hair. It involves talking into the early hours of the morning on benches outside pubs after closing. Holding hands and speaking softly and sharing little details hitherto housed in a bulging file of secrets. It is lovely and I am becoming braver. I think this man is my boyfriend. I think I am in something called a relationship. It is hard for me to know if I am, because I do not know what it must be, but perhaps there are just not enough words in English to describe this kind of arrangement. Arrangement. As if it has order, a structure somehow.” (p. 147–8)
Some quotes:
“I was born into a crowded room at St. Mary Abbot’s hospital, South Kensington, in 1968. Born in London into a month of nights and days only distinguishable form one another by degrees of grey. Born into a nation that regarded the delivery of new life as embarrassing and unseemly, that operated a National Health Service which viewed birth as a pathology necessitating a ten-day internment.
“In Grade One, when I was given a fresh clean notebook in which to write something called ‘My Autobiography,’ I wrote according to the certainty of the collective narrative: ‘I was born purple and dead. I was born in England,’ as if to imply that birthplace determined birth state. In fact, as my mother describes, it it may well have. I did not burst forth into being, I was pumped into existence by a machine. Although I was the result of premature ejaculation, I was not overly excited about being released into the world.” (pp. 10–11)
“Perhaps I’d missed the point or spoiled her one attempt at female bonding, but she rummaged around in the bathroom closet and thrust a box of tampons at me.
“‘Thanks, Mum,’ I said. ‘But I won’t be needing these.’ She does not realize that I have just decided never to have a period. No thank you very much, I am just not interested in going that route. You can take these straight back to wherever they came from.” (p. 86)
“ ‘You should do something with your hair,’ Binbecka has started to say to me. ‘It’s not becoming. Do something like mine. And clean your nails. What’s wrong with you, Thelma? Don’t you want boys to like you?’ she asks me.
“No. I don’t want to paint my lips in Silver City Pink, pull up my kilt and fold it over at the waist, or press my face to the wire fence and giggle through to the other side. I don’t understand this new language where I am supposed to say mean things about my friends like, ‘Oh my gawd, she’s like, such a bitch,’ and then spend three hours that night on the phone with her talking about boys. I don’t understand.” (p. 87)
“That was it for me. Since I couldn’t be adopted myself; since I couldn’t seem to embrace a religion or a lover because that would involve ghastly deeds for which I was quite unprepared; since I couldn’t adopt a child, or a cause, or a nation, I became a lawyer, or rather, I adopted the idea of the profession. It would take me many many more years to actually become a lawyer. I still had all my madness to get through, after all, but at least the declaration was the start of something. While everybody around me was so preoccupied with their bodies—their breasts, their exotic dancing, their ‘bonking’—I would devote myself to logical arguments and Faustian bargains. Of course it didn’t occur to me that as an anorexic I was probably the one most preoccupied with my body. I thought that I had transcended my body by refusing to yield to its basal demands. I wasn’t really going to make much of a lawyer until I could come to terms with the fact that I inhabited both a mind and a body. At least if I focused my mind I’d inhabit something.” (p. 113)
“ ‘I do have a date, as a matter of fact,’ I say. Just not the kind of date she imagines, where a guy picks me up in his car and I wear a miniskirt and heels and I listen to him talk about himself all night and then he pulls out his Visa and then his penis shortly thereafter and I feel like I can’t protest the latter because I haven’t protested the former.” (p. 201)
“We are moving in each other’s shadows, taking delicate steps at fifty-degree angles, peering out occasionally to catch the sun in each other’s hair. It involves talking into the early hours of the morning on benches outside pubs after closing. Holding hands and speaking softly and sharing little details hitherto housed in a bulging file of secrets. It is lovely and I am becoming braver. I think this man is my boyfriend. I think I am in something called a relationship. It is hard for me to know if I am, because I do not know what it must be, but perhaps there are just not enough words in English to describe this kind of arrangement. Arrangement. As if it has order, a structure somehow.” (p. 147–8)
August 31, 2016
Funny. I've had a couple of books that are taking me ages to read. But I found a copy of Camilla Gibb's Mouthing the Words in a crazy op shop on Redfern Street (for one dollar...), was intrigued and finished it in two days. Published in 2002, at a time when I was paying attention to new voices in Canadian fiction, I remember hearing good things about the book... so have been meaning to read it now for over a decade.
I enjoyed it. The best thing about the book is Thelma, spiky and funny and traumatised, the main character, and I did enjoy following her journey from childhood to adulthood. I liked the sense of movement, growth and possibility while not understating what she'd been through and the affects of her childhood sexual abuse.
It is a relatively slim book, and I found the characterizations of the minor characters a bit undeveloped. I wanted for them to be a bit more rounded or interesting; yet, perhaps it was a reflection of how the narrator related to the world too: at a distance. I was worried that some of the tropes of childhood sexual abuse were too familiar: anorexia, multiple personalities, a character who is abrasive as defence. I also nearly shouted at the page that with so much evidence of the abuse that no one except the narrator would mouth the words, and deal directly with what happened to her. It's in the backdrop that the abusive father is sent away, is possibly jailed, is kept away from the daughter... but keeps coming back. That other people know what happened but can't seem to say anything or provide support.
But the character of Thelma kept on becoming more original and interesting throughout the book: I was engaged with the way she started to form friendships and look into her sexuality and step outwards into the world. Meanwhile, the terrible effects of the abuse and society and her family's inability to provide support or address the issue seem like they could be terribly true and I have the feeling this book will be staying with me for a while.
I enjoyed it. The best thing about the book is Thelma, spiky and funny and traumatised, the main character, and I did enjoy following her journey from childhood to adulthood. I liked the sense of movement, growth and possibility while not understating what she'd been through and the affects of her childhood sexual abuse.
It is a relatively slim book, and I found the characterizations of the minor characters a bit undeveloped. I wanted for them to be a bit more rounded or interesting; yet, perhaps it was a reflection of how the narrator related to the world too: at a distance. I was worried that some of the tropes of childhood sexual abuse were too familiar: anorexia, multiple personalities, a character who is abrasive as defence. I also nearly shouted at the page that with so much evidence of the abuse that no one except the narrator would mouth the words, and deal directly with what happened to her. It's in the backdrop that the abusive father is sent away, is possibly jailed, is kept away from the daughter... but keeps coming back. That other people know what happened but can't seem to say anything or provide support.
But the character of Thelma kept on becoming more original and interesting throughout the book: I was engaged with the way she started to form friendships and look into her sexuality and step outwards into the world. Meanwhile, the terrible effects of the abuse and society and her family's inability to provide support or address the issue seem like they could be terribly true and I have the feeling this book will be staying with me for a while.
November 12, 2007
Sharp, witty & darkly humourous, this book is a fantastic read. I read it in a day & found the characters easy to relate to. The imagery is extremely realistic without being overpowering & is exceptionally delicate.
March 8, 2018
Quick review: This book is certainly harrowing, but rarely hilarious. It mentioned hilarity in both the summary here on Goodreads, and on the cover of the book itself- I disagree. It is clever, sharp, quick, but the content is as gloomy as you'll find.
This book, what to say about this book! I've only refrained from giving it a 5 star rating as I found it so miserable, so #triggering in it's biting portrayal of sexual abuse, anorexia, and borderline personality disorder, that it made me feel completely gloomy. I wanted to take Thelma and wrap her in my arms. Not that she would have wanted that- not that that would have helped.
This is one of those rare books that you finish and wonder how someone could write something so fluid, so utterly convincing, so imaginative yet realistic. I don't know how Gibb evaded awards and recognition for this, but I wish it had gained more traction. It's a real gem.
I felt tired after reading this- and not because I read it in a day or two. Just because I felt like I lived through Thelma's life; an exhausting life that just kept pushing on and on, relentless despite her attempts to slow, or stop.
This story is small, but doesn't feel so- it feels as though it encompasses the whole world inside these pages. We are pulled through the years, tugged along roughly by the arm, as Thelma hustles through a pained, imaginative childhood, young-adult years of institutions, unhappy high school, law school, and finally, post-graduate work at Oxford. It is only because we believe in Thelma's inherent goodness, intelligence, and resilience that we have any hope left at the conclusion of the book.
I really liked this book. I liked it's stark, dark language, it's unwillingness to tiptoe around and fluff. The character work was so strong I feel like I personally KNOW Ginniger, and Molly, and Patrick. I love it when books make you feel like that.
I give this a very tentative 4/5 stars- mainly because you can't do half points, which is dumb. Realistically it's a 4.5.
This book, what to say about this book! I've only refrained from giving it a 5 star rating as I found it so miserable, so #triggering in it's biting portrayal of sexual abuse, anorexia, and borderline personality disorder, that it made me feel completely gloomy. I wanted to take Thelma and wrap her in my arms. Not that she would have wanted that- not that that would have helped.
This is one of those rare books that you finish and wonder how someone could write something so fluid, so utterly convincing, so imaginative yet realistic. I don't know how Gibb evaded awards and recognition for this, but I wish it had gained more traction. It's a real gem.
I felt tired after reading this- and not because I read it in a day or two. Just because I felt like I lived through Thelma's life; an exhausting life that just kept pushing on and on, relentless despite her attempts to slow, or stop.
This story is small, but doesn't feel so- it feels as though it encompasses the whole world inside these pages. We are pulled through the years, tugged along roughly by the arm, as Thelma hustles through a pained, imaginative childhood, young-adult years of institutions, unhappy high school, law school, and finally, post-graduate work at Oxford. It is only because we believe in Thelma's inherent goodness, intelligence, and resilience that we have any hope left at the conclusion of the book.
I really liked this book. I liked it's stark, dark language, it's unwillingness to tiptoe around and fluff. The character work was so strong I feel like I personally KNOW Ginniger, and Molly, and Patrick. I love it when books make you feel like that.
I give this a very tentative 4/5 stars- mainly because you can't do half points, which is dumb. Realistically it's a 4.5.
October 5, 2014
It took me a chapter or two to fully entangle myself in this book (more because of my personal head space than anything else, I think) but once I was in, I was in. Simultaneously tender and brutal, Mouthing the Words is perhaps one of the most resonant survivor journeys I have ever seen represented in the written form.
I particularly appreciated the fragmented and darkly chaotic passages describing Thelma's experiences with her father and with her subsequent illness as a young woman. The style of writing felt very true in terms of reality; how disorganized and painful and surreal trauma is. The written word tends to inherently categorize experience, because language itself is a construct, and this can make it difficult to write about destructive, anomalous life events. But Camilla Gibb played around this artfully and effectively.
Much respect for this work of literature. Highly recommended, though with a definite trigger warning, so do a little research before reading if you are concerned about this.
I particularly appreciated the fragmented and darkly chaotic passages describing Thelma's experiences with her father and with her subsequent illness as a young woman. The style of writing felt very true in terms of reality; how disorganized and painful and surreal trauma is. The written word tends to inherently categorize experience, because language itself is a construct, and this can make it difficult to write about destructive, anomalous life events. But Camilla Gibb played around this artfully and effectively.
Much respect for this work of literature. Highly recommended, though with a definite trigger warning, so do a little research before reading if you are concerned about this.
June 25, 2018
This was such a unique story, probably because the main character used imaginary friends and voices and retreated into her imagination for the bulk of her life because she was terribly abused both sexually and emotionally. I couldn't quite believe it was a YA book but no matter the audience it was a story that was both tragic and hopeful.
Thelma is the protagonist and narrator and we totally get in her head as to how she sees things, her family and the things that happen to her. It's not even like she understands what is normal or not, since the author does an amazing job of painting a picture of what someone living this life might be like.
I found it challenging to decipher what was real or not but once I got a grasp on things I couldn't put the book down. It's a quick read. I love Canadian writing.
Thelma is the protagonist and narrator and we totally get in her head as to how she sees things, her family and the things that happen to her. It's not even like she understands what is normal or not, since the author does an amazing job of painting a picture of what someone living this life might be like.
I found it challenging to decipher what was real or not but once I got a grasp on things I couldn't put the book down. It's a quick read. I love Canadian writing.
September 5, 2021
Agudo y fantástico. Thelma y su viaje de vida fue sutil, cruel, delicado y desgarrador. Absolutamente excepcional.
No son cinco estrellas porque la manera en que algunos temas fueron tratados... y no por Thelma (porque su mente repleta de mundos y personajes y ramitas diminutas dejó entrever la angustia, la pena y las heridas de manera exquisita), sino por su entorno. El abuso es retratado con crudeza durante toda la historia y aunque Thelma tiene a personas genuinamente interesadas en ella, en realidad, ninguna de estas personas le ofrecen nunca ni la comprensión ni el consuelo, incluso cuando se nos deja saber que si conocen lo que Thelma ha sufrido.
Más allá de eso, el libro es un perfecto y sincero relato, lumínico y sombrío, de cicatrices, laberintos mentales y sanación; abrumador y mágico y lleno de gracia y genuino y un poquito lleno de locura y calidez.
Un golpe y un abrazo.
No son cinco estrellas porque la manera en que algunos temas fueron tratados... y no por Thelma (porque su mente repleta de mundos y personajes y ramitas diminutas dejó entrever la angustia, la pena y las heridas de manera exquisita), sino por su entorno. El abuso es retratado con crudeza durante toda la historia y aunque Thelma tiene a personas genuinamente interesadas en ella, en realidad, ninguna de estas personas le ofrecen nunca ni la comprensión ni el consuelo, incluso cuando se nos deja saber que si conocen lo que Thelma ha sufrido.
Más allá de eso, el libro es un perfecto y sincero relato, lumínico y sombrío, de cicatrices, laberintos mentales y sanación; abrumador y mágico y lleno de gracia y genuino y un poquito lleno de locura y calidez.
Un golpe y un abrazo.
April 2, 2024
10/5 stars. A book about choosing to live. I'm still crying from the end as I write this review. I have shed a skin and am different after reading this.
Controversial opinion: The Bell Jar walked so Mouthing The Words could fly. This will be the best book I will ever read in my life.
Controversial opinion: The Bell Jar walked so Mouthing The Words could fly. This will be the best book I will ever read in my life.
September 5, 2016
Super quick page-turner about a girl named Thelma who survives child abuse (from her father sexually and from her mother emotional and physical neglect) and subsequently her own psychosis; and yet she manages to achieve spectacularly. I fell in love with Thelma at the beginning, and rooted for her so hard it felt like sharing in her triumph. All the characters (even the imaginary ones) are colorfully presented, and humorously described, and writer Camilla Gibb does a winsome job entertaining the reader while explaining what it's like to go through such torments as eating disorders, and schizophrenia. One of the best debut novels I've ever read.
July 8, 2018
Enjoyed it initially, but found it increasingly difficult to follow with the novel's rapid movements between time and location. Admittedly, the non-linear plotline and alternation between different time periods engendered feelings of unreality and alienation, both of which the protagonist experiences, and so one could argue that this feature is the author's attempt at putting the reader in the protagonist's shoes; however, I felt that the changes were too abrupt and jarring to fully allow the reader to enter the protagonist's world. I enjoy reading books which depict emotions in abstract and sometimes coded manners, but this was just a little too much.
March 4, 2022
This novel was unlike anything I have ever read. From the first page, it is immediately harrowing. You move with Thelma as she navigates the - already stressful - task of growing up, whilst trying to avoid the prying thoughts of the enemies around her.
I have never read a novel so jarring and yet so sophisticated. Thelma is intelligent from a young age, and the disarray of her thoughts is so beautiful captured throughout the book by Gibb.
I would recommend to anyone - with a slight warning of the contents (sexual abuse, mental illness, physical illness).
I have never read a novel so jarring and yet so sophisticated. Thelma is intelligent from a young age, and the disarray of her thoughts is so beautiful captured throughout the book by Gibb.
I would recommend to anyone - with a slight warning of the contents (sexual abuse, mental illness, physical illness).
May 27, 2020
Beautifully written, easy to read, relatable characters, great story-lines. Thoroughly enjoyed seeing the world from Thelma's point of view and watching her from her journey from disillusionment to sanity and all the people she meet along the way .
October 18, 2012
One of the few books that made me feel it in my gut. Haven't read it in a long while and really want to go back to it one day.
June 28, 2018
I don’t find this book hilarious in anyway, but oh how fantastic it is, dark and absolutely mad but in a way where you can feel it. I love it.
I wanna be an icicle!
I wanna be an icicle!
December 4, 2017
Camilla Gibb is a favourite author of mine, whose books (such as "Sweetness in the Belly") have been powerful and beautifully written.
This novel, "Mouthing the Words," Gibbs's first published book, shows much of the promise that these later works achieve. Thelma is a striking and strong female character, and her life is fraught with sexual abuse and mental instability. Her struggles to move through these experiences and find a secure harbour kept me engaged as a reader. They also conveyed convincingly the difficulties that such a life can force someone to endure. That Thelma manages to do so, building a set of ties that support her, make this ultimately a hopeful book.
At the same time, as various reviewers have noted, this is very much a debut novel. In her later books, Camilla Gibb shows skill in plot development and character analysis. But this book has not achieved that maturity. The plot is often confusing and Thelma's character is sometimes difficult to understand (though that is in many ways what this book is about.) Patrick, her past lover, is also underdeveloped as a character, given what seems to have been his importance in Thelma's life.
Nevertheless, my overall assessment of this novel is positive. But for those who read it, don't stop there with Camilla Gibb! Go on to read the finer books which she has continued to write.
This novel, "Mouthing the Words," Gibbs's first published book, shows much of the promise that these later works achieve. Thelma is a striking and strong female character, and her life is fraught with sexual abuse and mental instability. Her struggles to move through these experiences and find a secure harbour kept me engaged as a reader. They also conveyed convincingly the difficulties that such a life can force someone to endure. That Thelma manages to do so, building a set of ties that support her, make this ultimately a hopeful book.
At the same time, as various reviewers have noted, this is very much a debut novel. In her later books, Camilla Gibb shows skill in plot development and character analysis. But this book has not achieved that maturity. The plot is often confusing and Thelma's character is sometimes difficult to understand (though that is in many ways what this book is about.) Patrick, her past lover, is also underdeveloped as a character, given what seems to have been his importance in Thelma's life.
Nevertheless, my overall assessment of this novel is positive. But for those who read it, don't stop there with Camilla Gibb! Go on to read the finer books which she has continued to write.
August 31, 2018
This poor girl. Then again, the last thing this character wants is our pity. Ms. Gibbs makes every effort to paint a portrait of a little girl doing all she can to try and cope with incest and verbal abuse. She urges us to ally with the little girl and look into her binoculars with the lenses reversed. She paints her version of dissociative disorder and that damned to hell diagnosis of borderline personality. There was a time (and there still may be) when mental health workers would not get reimbursed by insurance companies if they diagnosed a client/patient as a borderline. You see this is a personality disorder and you don’t ever get better. Our heroine proves those bean counters wrong! She - well I don’t want to ruin your reading experience- so I’ll leave it there. Sometimes, all a lost soul needs is a real friend. Miracles abound in Mouthing the Words. You will close the book with a feeling of hopefulness. Well done Ms. Gibbs. If this was a version of your private hell I’m so glad you made it through to the other side.
May 2, 2022
I picked this booked up in hopes that I'd have better understanding of how sexual abuse affects children.
The proprietor has a "Borderline Multiple Personality Disorder" so I am still a little bit confused. People with Borderline Personality Disorder don't have more than one or a separate personality which differs from Dissociative Identity Disorder in which people may have 2 or more than personalities. I don't understand the part where the author referred to it as Borderline Multiple Personality Disorder. I looked it up online and I didn't find any. She was showing signs of DID though. Totally out of the question since it looked like it resulted from sexual abuse.
The proprietor has a "Borderline Multiple Personality Disorder" so I am still a little bit confused. People with Borderline Personality Disorder don't have more than one or a separate personality which differs from Dissociative Identity Disorder in which people may have 2 or more than personalities. I don't understand the part where the author referred to it as Borderline Multiple Personality Disorder. I looked it up online and I didn't find any. She was showing signs of DID though. Totally out of the question since it looked like it resulted from sexual abuse.
September 24, 2017
Più agevole da leggere all'inizio, quando vengono narrate le agghiaccianti premesse dell'infanzia violata della protagonista, con un tono che permette al lettore adulto di vedervi tutto quello che accade, più di quanto sia effettivamente scritto. Più arduo quando invece Thelma si ritrova a dover affrontare le battaglie, perdendole in gran parte, per cercare di ricomporre se stessa dai frammenti lasciati da un padre abominevole e da una madre distratta. Un po' per la narrazione stessa che si fa schizofrenica, un po' per la quantità di sofferenza che viene veicolata nel contenuto stesso.
February 26, 2022
Great read! One of my favorite books so far! I am just struggling to understand why the author had described Thelma as Borderline Multiple Personality Disorder when she clearly she projects Dissociative Identity Disorder. I had to look it up online if there was such diagnosis but as someone who has Borderline Personality Disorder, Thelma did not show any symptoms at all. It could also be something that the author made inspiration of but all in all best read so far!
March 2, 2022
Interesting and odd, this one—Thelma spends so much time deep inside her head, which is often the only safe retreat she has. I don't have a great deal to say here, but I appreciate the way that, when Thelma starts to come out of her cocoon, it's not a straight transition from disconnected to connected or unhealthy to healthy; rather, hers is a nonlinear path with an emphasis on finding ways to integrate the things that are only real to Thelma into her greater-world life.
January 5, 2025
Absolutely beautiful - Thelma is an incredible protagonist and narrator. Mouthing the Words is horrifying, heartbreaking, and hilarious at times, but the heartwarming moments between Thelma and the characters she comes to trust and love made me adore this. Each page made me stop and appreciate just how perfect Gibb’s writing style is for this story.
May 11, 2017
A powerful look at the far-reaching impact of childhood sexual abuse. Yes, it's dark, but it's often fiercely funny, too, thanks to the wonderfully honest narrator. Note: This novel may not be the ideal choice for every reader (it may be hugely triggering for some), so do bear that in mind.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 23, 2017
Gave up halfway through. I kept waiting for the 'hilarious' and 'harrowing' to begin, but it was just a mish-mash of nothing particularly interesting. I liked her other books, but this was a waste of time.
July 24, 2017
Had really enjoyed another one of hers, 'Sweetness in the Belly' but I'm wondering whether this is the same Camilla Gibb! The back cover blurb was appealing - life seen through the eyes of a child yet it was not an innocent regard. Very disturbing content and not at all a relaxing read.
May 27, 2018
I don't know how accurate the portrayal of her mental issues is, but some of it clearly resonated with my experience, although it was also triggering for self-harm. Anyway, I guess some people will find it a bit all over the place, but I liked it.
February 9, 2022
This is not an easy book to read. I think only an author of Camilla Gibbs calibre could take on these subjects of abuse and mental illness from a child's perspective with bravery, warmth and humour. As always, she puts you right in the moment and at times that can be harrowing.
May 8, 2022
An overall good book detailing the life of a young girl from child to adult, her dark upbringing, the life obstacles, her mental health and relationships. Another commendable read from Camilla Gibb who has a flair for dark humor and captivating writing.
May 22, 2017
stellar -- she has been one of my favourite writers for years, but only now have I read her debut novel.
October 21, 2017
Incredibly well written and profoundly sad.
June 15, 2018
There is so much more to her stories. I read her memoir before this one and would like to know more about her relationships. Beautifully written but raw
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