154 reviews for:

That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row

Jarvis Jay Masters

4.17 AVERAGE

aligrimes9's review against another edition

5.0

emotional sad medium-paced

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Heartbreaking and beautiful. Would absolutely recommend.

tinyviolet's review against another edition

4.0

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

schiller23's review against another edition

4.25

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

ritad130's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

lindseyas's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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A beautiful memoir of the story of a boy-then-man who is stuck in the cycle of society's failure to care for him. Masters, growing up in an abusive household, left to the foster care system and surrounded by people who failed to look out for him, represents the plague of our modern criminal justice system. We fail to care for those who need it most, allowing them to fall victim to poverty, crime, drugs and the prison system. An extremely emotionally intelligent man, Masters was wronged by the system that was meant to protect him all of those years, but he remains hopeful, turning to faith to keep him going. This was gorgeously written, reading like an epic of a man growing up, learning from his mistakes and trying to do better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Death of parent, Murder

agfeeney's review against another edition

4.75

emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

natazuly's review against another edition

5.0

reflective slow-paced

corriejn's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Alcohol

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, Classism

greedy_dahlia's review against another edition

3.0

reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Vomit

tohfu's review against another edition

4.0

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4.5 stars
poignant and heartbreaking story about growing up in poverty and being a victim to the foster and prison systems in America. although the 1st half was riveting and well-paced, the 2nd half fell a bit flat for me as i felt it was rushed with several gaps in the author's timeline. i wish masters had extrapolated more on his positive moments with his family rather than only briefly mentioning or skipping over them entirely. the ending was tad preachy and didn't reflect much on masters' actual experiences on death row--only focusing on what he learned from the experience. overall, this was still a great memoir and masters really knows how to tell a story despite having the space of a prison cell to tell his story