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This book is like an eye-popping punch to the gut. The author is brutally honest about neglect and abuse and how the cycle repeats itself. If you never quite understood it before, you will sympathize and comprehend it better by the end of this autobiography.
Silence was given up for adoption at birth, but her mother failed to fill out all the proper paperwork when she left her daughter at the hospital. The hospital sent a letter to the last known address, and the extended family returned to the hospital and took the baby in. That would be horrifying enough, but readers might wonder why a child would grow up being told this story about the beginning of her life. Growing up hearing this story, Silence naturally feels unwanted and unloved from as far back as she can remember. Silence admits to having low self-esteem and making poor choices concerning friendships and marriage because she never learned that she deserved better. It isn't hard to guess that her young adult life was therefore spent in abusive relationships. Ultimately, with personal strength and therapy, Silence realizes about her spouse, "I wanted him to be a better man, but I was wishing on a star that wasn't there."
Silence finds her voice through writing, and what a voice she has. From her writing, readers will admire her bravery, honesty, and self-appraisal. She is a natural author. Her stream of consciousness stays on track and allows readers to follow her from childhood to adulthood as if they were her neighborhood friends. Sometimes, readers might want to shout to Silence, "No, don't take him back!" because reading this memoir is to be engrossed in a cyclically dramatic life that you are powerless to change.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review