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emharries's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
amyrandles1's review
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Classism
alicemotion's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating insight into growing up poor in the UK. I found the flashback format a little annoying at the beginning, but by the end enjoyed the parallel look at her life then and now, and how the areas had changed (or not).
tatterededges's review
3.0
I wanted to love this book but instead I found it kind of bland and repetitive. Each new town she visited presented more of the same in both content and context and having finished the book I would struggle to even recall which towns they even were. (Full disclosure, I’m geographically challenged so this might be more a reflection on me than the author).
Her childhood growing up in poverty and neglect would have been horrendous, I’m in no doubt about that however, it seemed like the author told us her childhood was horrible, instead of actually telling us ‘about’ her childhood.
She discloses later in the book that she doesn’t actually remember a lot of her childhood and while that’s probably true, I felt that she held back a lot of what she went through. That is her prerogative but if you’re going to write a book about what it’s like to grow up in poverty and neglect, you should be prepared to elaborate. The devil is in the details as they say and sadly, for this book there just weren’t that many details.
It’s obvious that this book was cathartic for the author and visiting the places she grew up was therapeutic as she writes her memoir without any trace of bitterness or anger. She’s not resentful or blaming of her mother, though she’d be within her rights to be and she retells events, particularly those relating to her own actions without apology. I really appreciated this aspect of her writing, I feel this level of objectivity adds to the credibility and integrity of the story.
Finally, I agree with her assessment that poverty begets poverty. We don’t live in a meritocracy and the systems in place to protect those most vulnerable are broken, underfunded and under resourced.
Her childhood growing up in poverty and neglect would have been horrendous, I’m in no doubt about that however, it seemed like the author told us her childhood was horrible, instead of actually telling us ‘about’ her childhood.
She discloses later in the book that she doesn’t actually remember a lot of her childhood and while that’s probably true, I felt that she held back a lot of what she went through. That is her prerogative but if you’re going to write a book about what it’s like to grow up in poverty and neglect, you should be prepared to elaborate. The devil is in the details as they say and sadly, for this book there just weren’t that many details.
It’s obvious that this book was cathartic for the author and visiting the places she grew up was therapeutic as she writes her memoir without any trace of bitterness or anger. She’s not resentful or blaming of her mother, though she’d be within her rights to be and she retells events, particularly those relating to her own actions without apology. I really appreciated this aspect of her writing, I feel this level of objectivity adds to the credibility and integrity of the story.
Finally, I agree with her assessment that poverty begets poverty. We don’t live in a meritocracy and the systems in place to protect those most vulnerable are broken, underfunded and under resourced.