"Sometimes suicidality doesn’t seem dark; it seems fair."
Heart Berries: A Memoir is the debut book from First Nation Canadian writer Terese Marie Mailhot. It follows Mailhot through her troubled childhood, early and tumultuous motherhood, and into her adult struggles with mental health and personal identity. Maillot's memoir covers many topics relevant to the lives of Indigenous women, including Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. It reached 14 on Th
"The book does everything it technically shouldn’t, brushing off the familiar regimen prescribed by MFA programs, and slipping the strictures of commercial publishing. The thrilling part is, it works. Heart Berries is a reminder that, in the right hands, literature can do anything it wants."
"Indian girls can be forgotten so well they forget themselves."
"It’s too ugly to speak this story. It sounds like a beggar. How could misfortune follow me so well, and why did I choose it every time?"
"I left my home because welfare was making me choose between my baby’s formula or oatmeal for myself. The ugly truth is that I lost my son Isadore in court. … The ugly of that truth is that I gave birth to my second son as I was losing my first. My court date and my delivery date aligned. In the hospital, they told me that my first son would go with his father."
"Isaiah cried all night, and I remembered well that I held a hand over his mouth, long enough for me to know I am a horror to my baby."
"My story was maltreated. The words were too wrong and ugly to speak. I tried to tell someone my story, but he thought it was a hustle."