David Thomas (14) (1968–)

As a story, this book is not much different from any other childhood abuse story. Although clearly, this was not the case for the author, David, who suffered years of sexual abuse from his mother and physical abuse from his step-father. His life was traumatic and I think the worst part was that he had no one to turn to. He was alone and helpless. After a rocky adolescence he managed to succeed as an adult and I commend him for the courage it must have taken to write his story and share it show more with the world after carrying around such a weighty secret for about thirty years. I wish him continued healing and success.

The writing itself didn’t grip me and it is very repetitive. Each section ends with a similar phrase, something like, “But I had no idea just how bad things were about to become.” The author writes from the perspective of the age he was as he describes the incidents and perhaps because of this, dates, ages, and some facts are confusing. I was surprised when, towards the middle of the book, he mentions that his mother never gets drunk during the week, only on weekends. From previous descriptions, it sounded like she was drunk most nights. Small parts of the content may be offensive to sensitive readers as the author describes the abuse, but it’s easy to skim over these as they are written in italics. show less