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vyhurz's review against another edition
5.0
I read Somebody’s Daughter in about 3 days, which is amazing for me. I am a very slow reader, and I’ve been a horrible slump for years. Much of this is due to the fact that my mother died in 2018 and I’m still grieving. It still hurts. Her death was traumatic because it happened quickly, over a few weeks, out of nowhere. I didn’t have a great relationship with my mother, and some of what I experienced can be found in these pages. Ford is my age and by hearing her interviews, following her Twitter, and reading this memoir, I feel like I’m not so alone. For me, childhood was a mix of good things and bad things, but I can really only remember the bad things. I feel guilty about that. I think Ford feels similarly.
Regarding the book itself: I loved it. I devoured it. I wanted more when it ended. I can’t wait to read what’s next. I’ve never read any of Ford’s essays, but now I want to find them. The way it’s written is so accessible and familiar. It makes you feel what she feels without pity or pride. Ford is writing about her experiences with the understanding of an adult. While the hurt is still there, she’s not wallowing in it. In that way, I wasn’t put off. There wasn’t a wall. I could be empathetic to what was happening.
I struggled a bit between giving this memoir 4 or 5 stars because there was one thing that bothered me: I wanted more. Some questions weren’t answered for me. Some things felt unsaid. Some things felt left out. But when I thought about it, I realized all the questions I had weren’t about Ford herself. They were about the people around her. Allen, for example. What happened to him? Did he stick around or disappear? How did she grow apart from R.C. and why? Did her mother ever believe her about anything? This book is about Ford, her growth, her pain, her love. In it, we can see ourselves. We don’t need fleshed out characters with their own backstories.
I don’t read a whole lot of nonfiction. In fact, the last one I read was by Roxane Gay in 2017. Wow, that’s a long time ago. But I haven’t even read many other books between then and now. Ford’s memoir made me want to read more memoirs, but I get nervous about being disappointed. However, it’s important to take a leap of faith. I want to try to do that.
This review is a lot more personal than my others because this book feels so personal to me. I connected with it so deeply, even though Ford and I have very different lives. I learned a lot here, and the stories, the passages, the thoughts, the experiences, everything in this book made me want to keep going and keep trying and do new things. I am so happy I read this.
tinyleafbooks.com
Regarding the book itself: I loved it. I devoured it. I wanted more when it ended. I can’t wait to read what’s next. I’ve never read any of Ford’s essays, but now I want to find them. The way it’s written is so accessible and familiar. It makes you feel what she feels without pity or pride. Ford is writing about her experiences with the understanding of an adult. While the hurt is still there, she’s not wallowing in it. In that way, I wasn’t put off. There wasn’t a wall. I could be empathetic to what was happening.
I struggled a bit between giving this memoir 4 or 5 stars because there was one thing that bothered me: I wanted more. Some questions weren’t answered for me. Some things felt unsaid. Some things felt left out. But when I thought about it, I realized all the questions I had weren’t about Ford herself. They were about the people around her. Allen, for example. What happened to him? Did he stick around or disappear? How did she grow apart from R.C. and why? Did her mother ever believe her about anything? This book is about Ford, her growth, her pain, her love. In it, we can see ourselves. We don’t need fleshed out characters with their own backstories.
I don’t read a whole lot of nonfiction. In fact, the last one I read was by Roxane Gay in 2017. Wow, that’s a long time ago. But I haven’t even read many other books between then and now. Ford’s memoir made me want to read more memoirs, but I get nervous about being disappointed. However, it’s important to take a leap of faith. I want to try to do that.
This review is a lot more personal than my others because this book feels so personal to me. I connected with it so deeply, even though Ford and I have very different lives. I learned a lot here, and the stories, the passages, the thoughts, the experiences, everything in this book made me want to keep going and keep trying and do new things. I am so happy I read this.
tinyleafbooks.com
spatterson12's review against another edition
5.0
A memoir about a girl who had to grow up faster than necessary. She internalized her experiences and didn’t have the support she could’ve used, and yet, she was determined to improve her life. Throughout the years, she received letters from her father who was imprisoned for reasons no one would tell her. Due to his absence she was raised by a single mom who was still growing herself and also spent time with her grandparents. This book also provides a reminder that the experience a parent has isn’t the same from sibling to sibling. TW: Sexual assault
brespages's review against another edition
5.0
So much about this book was deeply relatable. The way the author discusses the complicated relationships with family feels like she’s talking about your own relationships. The intricacies within sexual assault and the experience of knowing a person who committed an assault while also having your own experience as a victim and the complicated feelings surrounding that experience is written honestly and bravely.
jess_mango's review against another edition
5.0
Wow! Somebody's Daughter is a beautifully written and emotionally honest memoir about the author's experiences growing up. From the time she was very young, her father was incarcerated.
She always felt close to him even though she had few memories of seeing him face-to-face. Ford felt that her father was the one person in the whole world who could truly understand her. Ashley's mom struggled with poverty as Ashley was growing up and the two didn't have the closest relationship. Her mom was emotionally checked out most of the time and often lashed out at Ashley. Ashley is open about how she felt being a poor Black girl coming of age and receiving unwanted attention for her body.
This is a raw, yet important story of growing up Black in America. While there is tragedy in Ashley's story, she still shares sparks of brightness. Unflinchingly, she shines a light on those in her life who harmed her and those who helped her alike. In her youth she experienced domestic abuse and sexual assault. She didn't always have someone to turn to but she found her strength. This is a book about family and one girl's perseverance in finding her way despite her circumstances.
I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by the author herself and she did an excellent job delivering her story. I highly recommend this one, my friends!
4.5 stars.
What to listen to while reading...
Sunrise by Norah Jones
I Wanna Make it Up to You by Aretha Franklin
The Way You Make Me Feel by Michael Jackson
This is It by Kenny Loggins
Let Me Down by Jorja Smith
Read All About It by Emili Sande
Thank you to the publisher for the audiobook!
She always felt close to him even though she had few memories of seeing him face-to-face. Ford felt that her father was the one person in the whole world who could truly understand her. Ashley's mom struggled with poverty as Ashley was growing up and the two didn't have the closest relationship. Her mom was emotionally checked out most of the time and often lashed out at Ashley. Ashley is open about how she felt being a poor Black girl coming of age and receiving unwanted attention for her body.
This is a raw, yet important story of growing up Black in America. While there is tragedy in Ashley's story, she still shares sparks of brightness. Unflinchingly, she shines a light on those in her life who harmed her and those who helped her alike. In her youth she experienced domestic abuse and sexual assault. She didn't always have someone to turn to but she found her strength. This is a book about family and one girl's perseverance in finding her way despite her circumstances.
I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by the author herself and she did an excellent job delivering her story. I highly recommend this one, my friends!
4.5 stars.
What to listen to while reading...
Sunrise by Norah Jones
I Wanna Make it Up to You by Aretha Franklin
The Way You Make Me Feel by Michael Jackson
This is It by Kenny Loggins
Let Me Down by Jorja Smith
Read All About It by Emili Sande
Thank you to the publisher for the audiobook!
katyrain1's review against another edition
4.0
I found this book fascinating. The author's upbringing and life experience was very different but also similar to mine. Her well written perspectives as a woman of color, from a poor area, being raised by a single parent, who's body developed early were refreshing as they were different from my experience.
I could relate to her complicated relationship with her mother and conflicting feelings of gratitude for the good times as well as struggling with the less warm memories. I also found the battle between who you are now and who you used to be familiar.
Beautifully and heartbreakingly written. Ashley's bravery and her vulnerability in sharing make this book great.
I could relate to her complicated relationship with her mother and conflicting feelings of gratitude for the good times as well as struggling with the less warm memories. I also found the battle between who you are now and who you used to be familiar.
Beautifully and heartbreakingly written. Ashley's bravery and her vulnerability in sharing make this book great.
enid815's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed Somebody’s daughter and learning about the life of Ashley Ford. Getting a glimpse of life with a single mother and a father in jail was very eye opening for me. I have experience with a single mother but my father was around also.
The mother daughter dynamics was very familiar and like Ashley I was able to escape it to my Dad’s for a period of time. Mothers and daughters have interesting relationships which I now see being a mother of a daughter.
Well written book only a couple of sections where a little slow for me. I also would have liked to have learned about her mother and grandmother’s relationship and what role that played in the relationship she had with her mom.
The mother daughter dynamics was very familiar and like Ashley I was able to escape it to my Dad’s for a period of time. Mothers and daughters have interesting relationships which I now see being a mother of a daughter.
Well written book only a couple of sections where a little slow for me. I also would have liked to have learned about her mother and grandmother’s relationship and what role that played in the relationship she had with her mom.
nickscoby's review against another edition
4.0
Ford is a writer to watch. Beautiful prose. Great text about the first-generation college experience.
aliciasokol's review against another edition
3.0
This is the type of voice I want to hear more of - a person of color with life experiences vastly different than my own. Ashley Ford is brave in telling her truth. I really wanted to love this book, but it came up disappointingly short for me. The marketing for this book plays up her incarcerated father, and while this fact shapes her (often tumultuous) childhood, it’s a very small part of the overall narrative. We are more than 2/3 through the book before we finally learn the (devastatingly ironic) reason her father is in prison. Ms. Ford is a powerful writer, but I wish her editors would have pushed her to create a more even arc to this book and go deeper into some of the themes, rather than including a broad collection of lightly touched-on stories. Some of the most important themes are glossed over and mixed in with seemingly irrelevant details. The narrative really focuses on Ms. Ford’s complicated relationship with her mother, as well as her relationships with her grandmother and siblings. She explores her sexual identity and trauma. We are told early on that her father in being released from prison after 20+ years there, but there is very little time spent on the period leading up to this news or her reunion with him. I hope she keeps writing and digging deeper.
juliagrace2w's review against another edition
5.0
Love a memoir! She was so honest and thoughtful in telling her story. It’s such a difficult dichotomy she write about, of loving your family but not being able to separate their actions from who they are in your life.