If you’ve been on the internet at all over the last month, you’ve likely seen the cover of Jennette McCurdy’s memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died. For those not familiar, Jennette McCurdy, the former actor and singer who starred in iCarly and Sam & Cat, has penned a heartbreaking and hilarious memoir about growing up a child star and her abusive mother, Debra (who died in 2013). 

There was a knee-jerk reaction to the title, prudish in a way that seems farcical when coming from Twitter, a social platform that thrives on controversy and satire. Then people actually read it, and a flurry of praise, extracts and a well-earned place atop the New York Times bestseller list quickly followed. For the real cynics, there was even a genuinely touching interview with Drew Barrymore, whose own struggles with her mother have been well documented, to warm the hardest of hearts. Now, two months after its publication, the dust is settling, the memoir is becoming an instant cult classic and McCurdy is returning to life as a public figure on her own terms. 

McCurdy faced emotional and physical abuse at the hands of her mother; she was held up to impossible standards and had every aspect of her life controlled, from food to socialising. I’m Glad My Mom Died is an accurate title, not just there to reel in readers – it maps out how, since Debra’s death in 2013, McCurdy has been able to identify that her mother was abusive and carve a life out for herself in the wake of this realisation. Her mother’s death has given her a sense of self.