I'm Glad My Mom Died

Jennette McCurdy

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2022

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PrologueChapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue Summary

Jennette and her brothers—Marcus, Dustin, and Scott—surround their comatose mother who has only 48 hours to live. Each of her brothers try to offer their unconscious mother a piece of exciting personal news. When they leave Jennette alone, she tells her mother some news that she is certain will be enough to wake her up: She weighs only 89 pounds, her mother’s goal weight for her. As her mother lies unconscious, Jennette reflects on who she is now that she doesn’t live to please her mom.

Prologue Analysis

Jennette introduces her family and her relationship to her mother in a final moment. This is effective in creating a shocking sense of something being amiss; while her brothers offer news of engagements or job promotions, in the irrational but human effort to help their mother, she shares that her weight is dangerously low.

This section also provides a brief description of her brothers: “the together one,” “the smart one,” and “the sensitive one” (5). She refers to each of her siblings by these labels as they share their “big” news with her comatose mother. Here, Jennette establishes her casual and familiar voice that sets up the