Ashley Ford recounts her childhood to us as she imagines who her imprisoned father might be and pines for a better relationship with her mother who is trying to keep the family afloat living under the poverty line. Ashley is a bit of a hopeful dreamer who doesn’t seem to understand the motivations of the adults around her. She talks about her coping skills or lack thereof as she deals with domestic abuse, sexual assualt and that overall feeling of not being important to anyone in her life. She deals with the sexualization of young girls and the loss of innocence based on the predatory nature of others. Then she finds out why her father is really in prison.
We see her mature into an adult and deal with the repercussions of the trauma on her adult relationships. She is forced to confront her parents and I’m not sure I liked how either of them dealt with it. But this is a memoir and I applaud the author for revealing the raw truth of her life.
Thanks to Libro.fm for access to this one via the ALC program. All opinions above are my own.
Have you ever had a confrontation with your parents over something that happened in your childhood?
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