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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Murder
Moderate: Racism, Sexual violence
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
Have you ever put a book down because you knew what was coming and you weren't ready for it?
Natasha Tretheway tells us from the start what happens in this attempt to "make sense of [her] history, to understand the tragic course upon which [her] mother's life was set and the way [her] own life has been shaped by that legacy." Her mother died at the hands of her stepfather.
What she doesn't tell us is the journey she takes us on to get there: from exploring her childhood against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, to traveling with her mother to a new city and a new family, to describing life with an abusive stepfather through the second-person narrative of an author still dissociating from the memory, to moving through the heartbreaking evidence of what was to come, until finally reaching the precipice of a story that you already know the ending of, yet somehow feel less prepared to face now than you did when you first started reading.
Tragic, honest, and written with loving grace, never once does this book apologize for the story it is telling. Tretheway never softens the manipulations of her stepfather nor does she offer mercy to the police force that so utterly failed her family.
Natasha Tretheway tells us from the start what happens in this attempt to "make sense of [her] history, to understand the tragic course upon which [her] mother's life was set and the way [her] own life has been shaped by that legacy." Her mother died at the hands of her stepfather.
What she doesn't tell us is the journey she takes us on to get there: from exploring her childhood against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, to traveling with her mother to a new city and a new family, to describing life with an abusive stepfather through the second-person narrative of an author still dissociating from the memory, to moving through the heartbreaking evidence of what was to come, until finally reaching the precipice of a story that you already know the ending of, yet somehow feel less prepared to face now than you did when you first started reading.
Tragic, honest, and written with loving grace, never once does this book apologize for the story it is telling. Tretheway never softens the manipulations of her stepfather nor does she offer mercy to the police force that so utterly failed her family.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
challenging
sad
tense
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
A beautifully written memoir that tells such a sad story. Really felt this one.
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced