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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
This memoir will always hold a special place in my heart. It’s a powerful true story of resilience, found family, addiction, sobriety, and so many other profound themes. I first read it about 15ish years ago, but rereading it now as an adult approaching 9 years of sobriety, hits in an entirely different way. This remains my all time favorite memoir. 5 ⭐️’s
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
inspiring
I wasn't expecting much from a "drug addict named Cupcake from the ghetto to high class success lawyer" story that runs a little long but I ended up thoroughly enjoying this book. Not the tightest prose but at least it isn't bogged down with flowery language and useless adjectives. It's plainly written for an easy read and the author doesn't hype up or dumb down the grittier details.
If anything, I'd have preferred some more descriptive phrases to really put the reader IN the story. I never was fully immersed in the times and places she wrote of but given the scope of the tale, her whole life from childhood on, there wasn't much room for that.
If anything, I'd have preferred some more descriptive phrases to really put the reader IN the story. I never was fully immersed in the times and places she wrote of but given the scope of the tale, her whole life from childhood on, there wasn't much room for that.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This book was a very hard read. As a former foster child, it is important for others to understand that the foster care system is extremely flawed. I too suffered abuse in foster care. The separation of the foster parents biological family to the foster family is a real thing, something that I experienced in every single one. The withholding food, not using the money on the foster children for necessities like clothing, all of it is very real.
I am so happy that there is so much light shown on many different struggles in the Black Community. This was an excellent read.
I am so happy that there is so much light shown on many different struggles in the Black Community. This was an excellent read.
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
I read a lot of the reviews for this book and some people gave it one star because they couldn't possibly believe that all this stuff that cupcake brown writes about is actually real. I must agree with them that its hard to believe that all this horrible stuff she writes about could happen to one so young but it happens out there some people just don't see it or never experience it. I just haven't witnessed it myself but I know its out there. I gave this book three stars not because i believe this memoir is "far-fetched" but because a lot of the time she was writing about the same thing, but it was on a different day a different place and with different people. To be honest though I enjoyed reading this memoir I was happy that it was over with because it was just dragging on and on and I couldn't wait for it to be over. I liked the beginning and the end the most because in the beginning we get a background of her history and who she is and the start of her life spiraling out of control and the ending was how she picked herself back up and recovered from drug addiction and alcoholism, the middle of the book was just a pattern i came to notice that I already knew what the next chapter was going to be about. Overall i liked the book and would recommended it to anyone who likes memoirs and reading about a person overcoming there addictions.
I'm so glad to be finished this book. It desperately needed editing to trim the fat and move the story along. Parts of it are so sad, so compelling but at some point it feels redundant.
Also, I have to be honest and question whether or not much of it is even true. If someone were getting as loaded as the author claimed, how to remember some of these finer details?
She does triumph and that's great, definitely could have been done in fewer pages.
Also, I have to be honest and question whether or not much of it is even true. If someone were getting as loaded as the author claimed, how to remember some of these finer details?
She does triumph and that's great, definitely could have been done in fewer pages.
Really liked this one. Had a satisfying arc which obvi isn’t always the truth for people in similar circumstances (severe childhood trauma, addiction, crime) but was def a story of hope & grace, told with humility & good humor.