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uhines 's review for:
A Piece of Cake
by Cupcake Brown
I borrowed this book from my library as an audiobook solely for the fact that I love listening to Bahni Turpin read. Thus, my experience with this book was a little bit different than those that read a traditional book.
This book is a true story of a woman who was thrust into the foster care system that failed her after her mother’s sudden death. As a result, her life encountered rape, drugs, alcohol, prostitution, gang banging, homelessness, and pretty much a bunch of other bad stuff you may be able to imagine, starting as early as age eleven. Still, in the end, she was able to rise above all the terrors of her adolescent life and become successful and influential.
In the beginning, this story was very interesting and compelling. It was tragic how much and how often the foster care system failed Brown as a child. It was almost unbelievable how she kept ending up with Diane. One could understand how her life took so many bad turns as a result. The story is hard to believe simply because the gravity of it, but I never questioned its verity. It is just hard to belief that someone had to go through these kinds of things.
The book took a different turn, though, once Brown got heavy into drugs. I suppose that she wanted to give a complete picture of her experiences, but it just became the same instance over and over again, just on a different day. It got quite repetitive. Even actual phrases and stories were repeated unnecessarily. This book is in need of a good editor. Because of this, the book goes on for much longer than necessary, and it became a little bit tiring and uninteresting during that section.
However, the book did improve again once Brown got past that point and started to focus on her road to recovery and reinvention. It was actually oddly encouraging to hear her twelve step experiences and related advice because the principles are useful in so many aspects of a more “normal” life, too.
Because I listened to the audiobook, I did not have the same issue that many had with the switch back and forth between street talk and more standard English. Turpin read this contrast in a way that just made it flow well and work.
Ultimately, this is an inspiring story of overcoming and absolute horrible childhood and adolescence. I do not usually read this kind of autobiography. Usually, I read those of famous people, but this was an interesting enough read. Perhaps it is just better to listen to the audiobook and maybe fast forward through some of the repetitive middle.
This book is a true story of a woman who was thrust into the foster care system that failed her after her mother’s sudden death. As a result, her life encountered rape, drugs, alcohol, prostitution, gang banging, homelessness, and pretty much a bunch of other bad stuff you may be able to imagine, starting as early as age eleven. Still, in the end, she was able to rise above all the terrors of her adolescent life and become successful and influential.
In the beginning, this story was very interesting and compelling. It was tragic how much and how often the foster care system failed Brown as a child. It was almost unbelievable how she kept ending up with Diane. One could understand how her life took so many bad turns as a result. The story is hard to believe simply because the gravity of it, but I never questioned its verity. It is just hard to belief that someone had to go through these kinds of things.
The book took a different turn, though, once Brown got heavy into drugs. I suppose that she wanted to give a complete picture of her experiences, but it just became the same instance over and over again, just on a different day. It got quite repetitive. Even actual phrases and stories were repeated unnecessarily. This book is in need of a good editor. Because of this, the book goes on for much longer than necessary, and it became a little bit tiring and uninteresting during that section.
However, the book did improve again once Brown got past that point and started to focus on her road to recovery and reinvention. It was actually oddly encouraging to hear her twelve step experiences and related advice because the principles are useful in so many aspects of a more “normal” life, too.
Because I listened to the audiobook, I did not have the same issue that many had with the switch back and forth between street talk and more standard English. Turpin read this contrast in a way that just made it flow well and work.
Ultimately, this is an inspiring story of overcoming and absolute horrible childhood and adolescence. I do not usually read this kind of autobiography. Usually, I read those of famous people, but this was an interesting enough read. Perhaps it is just better to listen to the audiobook and maybe fast forward through some of the repetitive middle.