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heidisreads's review against another edition
4.0
“Nothing is as simple as a fairytale”
American Daughter by Stephanie Thornton Plymale is a memoir of a woman who hid her past, just like her mother and grandmothers did before her. This memoir has so many layers and about 1/3 of the way through, I didn’t know if this story was one I cared to read anymore about. Then a “so what” moment happened and OH MY OH (you can ask my family) I did nothing except bury myself in the rest of Stephanie’s story. Unforgettable, complex and insightful, this memoir is right up there with The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls.
Pub date: 1/12/21
Thank you to @netgalley and @harperonebooks for the advanced digital galley.
American Daughter by Stephanie Thornton Plymale is a memoir of a woman who hid her past, just like her mother and grandmothers did before her. This memoir has so many layers and about 1/3 of the way through, I didn’t know if this story was one I cared to read anymore about. Then a “so what” moment happened and OH MY OH (you can ask my family) I did nothing except bury myself in the rest of Stephanie’s story. Unforgettable, complex and insightful, this memoir is right up there with The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls.
Pub date: 1/12/21
Thank you to @netgalley and @harperonebooks for the advanced digital galley.
pr727's review against another edition
5.0
A memoir of a shockingly horrible childhood and years of abuse dealing with a mentally unwell mother. What the daughter learns about her mother’s family and her paternity are a welcome “bright spot” in a miserable true story.
swiss_miss_73's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Child abuse
mimi242's review against another edition
4.0
If you are looking for a memoir to read, I just finished this one. It is really good. It is unflinchingly honest and will make your heart hurt, make you furious, but also make you smile. It explains things to change the mom from a one dimensional “bad mom” to an understanding of what caused her mom to splinter apart and to show redemption is possible for some people, but that others are too broken for anything except accepting and loving them, anyway.
pagesofgabriella's review against another edition
4.0
“I was an American daughter, in the most optimistic sense of the phrase. And I was an American nightmare. I was a child, one of millions, who fell between the cracks”
Wow, my first memoir of 2021 is in the books and it was a heavy one. Thank you [#partner] @bibliolifestyle and @harperonebooks for this gifted copy.
This book just came out yesterday 1/12/21 so it’s hot off the press!
There are quite a few triggers in this one that I want to make clear to anyone who is interested in picking up this deeply moving book. Those triggers include: sexual assault, pedophilia, suicide, drug addiction, miscarriage, mental illness, loss of a parent, and child abuse.
Stephanie Thornton Plymale has experienced incomprehensible trauma that took root before she even came into the world. She lacked basic care and nourishment and was often found homeless or trapped in a dangerous foster home, her mother was in and out of jail and psych wards her whole childhood, and her siblings were all separated from her, leaving her to fend for herself.
What truly sets this book apart is the longing Stephanie still had, despite it all, to learn about her mother’s life as she learns that her mother is dying of cancer. She somehow had the strength to put aside the pain and trauma her mother supplied her with, to sit down with her and learn her story. Despite having read this story (in one sitting by the way) I still can’t begin to understand how difficult it must have been for Stephanie to put her mother’s story to paper. To have to dredge through her own trauma to put her mother’s story and life first.
To think that Stephanie kept her story to herself for 50 years is heartbreaking. The courage that it took her to share this story with the world is incredible, and this memoir is a brutal glimpse into the foster care system in America and the lives of children who fell through the cracks because of a broken system.
Wow, my first memoir of 2021 is in the books and it was a heavy one. Thank you [#partner] @bibliolifestyle and @harperonebooks for this gifted copy.
This book just came out yesterday 1/12/21 so it’s hot off the press!
There are quite a few triggers in this one that I want to make clear to anyone who is interested in picking up this deeply moving book. Those triggers include: sexual assault, pedophilia, suicide, drug addiction, miscarriage, mental illness, loss of a parent, and child abuse.
Stephanie Thornton Plymale has experienced incomprehensible trauma that took root before she even came into the world. She lacked basic care and nourishment and was often found homeless or trapped in a dangerous foster home, her mother was in and out of jail and psych wards her whole childhood, and her siblings were all separated from her, leaving her to fend for herself.
What truly sets this book apart is the longing Stephanie still had, despite it all, to learn about her mother’s life as she learns that her mother is dying of cancer. She somehow had the strength to put aside the pain and trauma her mother supplied her with, to sit down with her and learn her story. Despite having read this story (in one sitting by the way) I still can’t begin to understand how difficult it must have been for Stephanie to put her mother’s story to paper. To have to dredge through her own trauma to put her mother’s story and life first.
To think that Stephanie kept her story to herself for 50 years is heartbreaking. The courage that it took her to share this story with the world is incredible, and this memoir is a brutal glimpse into the foster care system in America and the lives of children who fell through the cracks because of a broken system.
notbucket24's review against another edition
2.0
While I really like books like this, this book just wasn't for me. I'm not sure why, but there are a ton of other memoirs out there like this that are just so much better.