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yvo_about_books 's review for:

Wavewalker: Breaking Free by Suzanne Heywood
3.0
adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced
Finished reading: January 10th 2025


“I had no control over my life when I was a child, but as an adult I have the right to tell my story as honestly as I can.”

I love a bout of bookish travel, so when I saw Nicki mention this memoir and its many destinations I couldn't resist adding it to my shelves. Wavewalker sounded absolutely fascinating with its focus on the author's life growing up on board of a ship while traveling the world... I think we can all agree it isn't your ordinary childhood. Suzanne Heywood talks openly about her struggles during her ten years on board of the Wavewalker, and she had a lot to endure for a long long time. Can we talk about how her parents should have never been allowed to raise a child?! Seriously, the way they treated Suzanne is at least severe child neglect, or probably more accurately child abuse if you keep stacking up everything they did (or didn't do). Her mother is toxic, manipulative, abusive and mainly uses her daughter as a servant. Her father is slightly better, although he still doesn't seem to care about her needs at all... And her brother Jon is the favored and spoiled child who can do no wrong. Her parents ignored her when she was severely injured, gaslighted her constantly, denied her proper eduation and ended up abandoning her; it's truly shocking to read some of the things they did over the years. That said, I found that there was a bit too much focus on Suzanne complaining about every little thing her parents did, and it became a bit repetitive over the time. It's not that I don't acknowledge her suffering, but I was expecting more focus on the actual traveling, day-to-day life on the boat and countries they visited... This would have helped considerably in balancing out this memoir more. Still, I'm glad I took the time to read it, and my bookish travel map is going to look VERY good this month with all the countries I visited while reading Wavewalker. 
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