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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
This is an incredible autobiography by Cupcake Brown, from her experiences in the horrific foster care system, to an addict and gang member and to a lawyer. She is a brave and incredible woman who has gone through so much adversity. The writing style is engaging and she uses relatable language. Despite all the darkness she has been through, she didn’t let the darkness win. I don’t think it’s appropriate to put a spoiler warning in an autobiography as this is a real person’s life written by them if that makes sense (probably not)?
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This book was hard for me to read because it dealt with intense situations that no child or person should be in. Cupcake made it out though through sheer grit and determination and with the help of her found family. This was an immensely inspirational (and entertaining!) book.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
An absolutely unbelievable story - the tenacity, perseverance and strength Cupcake had to develop to survive, let alone thrive later in her life is both inspiring and infuriating that she, or any child, was put on the position to bed those traits in the first place.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse
Minor: Abortion
The first 100 pages were the most painful to read, and I really wanted to stop reading. From the moment her mother dies, her life has been a downward spiral into drugs, alcohol, prostitution, gangbanging, and more. It is incredible how she managed to turn her life around, get clean, sober, and even graduate from law school. It's worth reading all the way.
Most powerful book and story. I kept thinking there is no way this is true, there’s no way one person actually went through all of this. I am blown away with the life and struggles of Cupcake. Her story is truly powerful.
It was good, but it got kind of repetitive to the point where you were like "yeah yeah, we get it, you were high all the time."
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
I always have a hard time articulating a response to a memoir. Cupcake Brown was failed by a foster care system that was supposed to care for her after her mother died when she was 11. She was taken from the people that loved her and thrown into an abusive household that forced her down a path of rape, gang violence, drug abuse, and homelessness. It would be fifteen years before she "slept in total peace and with absolute serenity... completely clean and sober," and more than ten years after that before she continued her education to become an attorney.
This is a popular title with the teens I work with so I thought I'd read it. For me, Brown's memoir was a window into the life of a child forced to grow up too fast and the mind of a teen just trying to survive, no matter the cost.
It was also a constant exercise in empathy; like a lot of people who are uninvolved with gangs, sex work, and drug abuse, I understand the environmental and societal causes underlying them, but never really KNEW what they were like. (I can almost HEAR y'all saying "wow, how naive," but I'm not about to sit here like a smug "woke" liberal and pretend I know things). I am humbled to have read Cupcake Brown's story about her decades-long fight for survival and the right to live and dream without abuse.
This is a popular title with the teens I work with so I thought I'd read it. For me, Brown's memoir was a window into the life of a child forced to grow up too fast and the mind of a teen just trying to survive, no matter the cost.
It was also a constant exercise in empathy; like a lot of people who are uninvolved with gangs, sex work, and drug abuse, I understand the environmental and societal causes underlying them, but never really KNEW what they were like. (I can almost HEAR y'all saying "wow, how naive," but I'm not about to sit here like a smug "woke" liberal and pretend I know things). I am humbled to have read Cupcake Brown's story about her decades-long fight for survival and the right to live and dream without abuse.