If you were a teen or around that age in 2007, you’re probably familiar with the Nickelodeon series iCarly, which debuted in September of that year and ran until Nov. 23, 2012.
iCarly followed the adventures of Carly Shay (Miranda Cosgrove) and her best friends Sam Puckett (Jeanette McCurdy) and Freddie Benson (Nathan Kress) as they create a popular web show, starring Carly and Sam and taped by Freddy. The show was spun off with another Nickelodeon show called Sam and Cat, in which McCurdy reprised her role from iCarly. Unlike iCarly however, Sam and Cat only lasted one season and was the last of Jeanette McCurdy’s major television roles before she quit acting in 2017 to focus on her mental health.
Now in her bestselling memoir I’m Glad my Mom Died, McCurdy reveals that her acting career wasn’t something she pursued willingly. Instead, her mother Debbie, who died from cancer in 2013, essentially forced acting onto Jeanette when her daughter was just six-years-old.
McCurdy reveals that her mother had a dream of acting when she was a little girl, but McCurdy’s grandparents wouldn’t let Debbie pursue that dream. And when Jeanette was born, Debbie saw a way to live out her dream vicariously through her daughter, signing her up for auditions.
McCurdy certainly doesn’t hold anything back. Or if she does, the reader won’t assume she did. The book gets candid right away, as a 20-year-old Jeanette tries to wake up her mother from a coma by revealing she has gotten her weight down to 88 pounds. Jeanette is sure her mother will wake up to that news and when that fails, it sinks in that her mother is dying.
The story flashes back to McCurdy’s childhood and her mother getting her into acting. McCurdy talks about anxieties around acting and how she wanted to do well in order to please her mother. The reader will find themselves empathizing with Jeanette and hating Debbie with how candid the memoir gets as the story moves along.
That’s not to say the book is all negative, however. Parts of it will make you laugh, such as Jeanette describing her early impression of Miranda Cosgrove as someone who “takes the lord’s name in vain at least 50 times a day.” While writing about tough situations, McCurdy succeeds in getting the reader to empathize with those situations while managing to be funny. At times the reader may want to step away from how heavy the book gets, but there’s usually a lighter anecdote that immediately follows the heavy ones, just as in real life.
I’m Glad my Mom Died is a must-read for all people. While those who have had abusive parents need it the most, everyone should read it to understand the perspective of someone with an abusive parent.
I’m Glad My Mom Died is available wherever books are sold, both in stores and online.
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