One of the most prominent voices of her generation debuts with an extraordinarily powerful memoir: the story of a childhood defined by the ever looming absence of her incarcerated father and the path we must take to both honor and overcome our origins.
For as long as she could remember, Ashley has put her father on a pedestal. Despite having only vague memories of seeing him face-to-face, she believes he's the only person in the entire world who understands her. She thinks she understands him too. He's sensitive like her, an artist, and maybe even just as afraid of the dark. She's certain that one day they'll be reunited again, and she'll finally feel complete. There are just a few problems: he's in prison, and she doesn't know what he did to end up there.
Through poverty, puberty, and a fraught relationship with her mother, Ashley returns to her image of her father for hope and encouragement. She doesn't know how to deal with the incessant worries that keep her up at night, or how to handle the changes in her body that draw unwanted attention from men. In her search for unconditional love, Ashley begins dating a boy her mother hates; when the relationship turns sour, he assaults her. Still reeling from the rape, which she keeps secret from her family, Ashley finally finds out why her father is in prison. And that's where the story really begins.
Somebody’s Daughter steps into the world of growing up a poor Black girl, exploring how isolating and complex such a childhood can be. As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she provides a poignant coming-of-age recollection that speaks to finding the threads between who you are and what you were born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them.
Review
Thank You Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for a copy in exchange for a review!
I am not giving this book a 3 star because it isn’t a wonderful account of a strong woman willing to put herself out there in hopes of sharing her story so others will do the same. I am in no way saying her story is less than others. I’m only giving it a three-star because of the “enjoyment” of reading it and the pacing.
The audiobook is definitely the way to go for this book in many ways. The book is narrated by the author which of course is wonderful for a book like this because they're able to tell their story in the correct way. The author was able to emphasize the correct words to tell the story in the way she wanted it told to begin with. She did wonderful at changing her voice to portray different people in her life. She even added a few giggles and you can tell in her voice the happy moments and could hear the smile in her voice.
One important way that sticks out in my mind of the way she changed her voice was the little joke she and her mother had of calling each other and speaking in a certain way. When narrating these parts of the book she changed her voice in the way that they would in reality have spoken to each other. It made me more engaged in the story because I felt like I had a behind-the-scenes knowledge of her life with her mother. I think this was also important to add because even though she did have a hard life living with her mother and the abuse she experienced from her it does show that once she got older their relationship wasn't dissolved they still had their moments of closeness.
The audiobook at the end also includes an interview with the author. This interview had a profound impact on the way that I now think about her story and I understand more about her and her writing process and the background of the book that I would never have known from just reading the book. It shows us the journey she took into excepting her experience and having the courage to share what she went through. Her story I'm sure we'll reach so many different people's hearts especially people who have gone through similar situations like she has.
One thing I appreciated about the way that this book was organized is that each chapter moves on to a different situation in her life. This made it easy to follow along with the book because I knew that once a new chapter had started that we would move on to a different topic and I'd be able to focus on just that situation and not have to combine that with all the other information that I had already read.
Even though the plot of the book is supposed to be focused on the sexual abuse she experienced and the incarceration of her father this plot is a little deceptive. The book does include these topics but it does not make up the book. Before listening to her interview I would have put this as a fault on the book because her father and her experience with him being in prison doesn't really come up a lot in the book. The main core of the book is just her experiences and another major part of the book was the way she was treated by her mother. Now I know after listening to the author's expressions that she did this on purpose, and now I know how hard it was for her to put herself out in the open and not make this book all about her father but to let herself tell her story. I also appreciate that she doesn't sugarcoat what she experienced. She is honest and I think that the way she wrote it will be able to help a lot of people and stir emotions in the reader.
And even though I'm not a black woman I think this book could definitely help a lot of women because it expresses the concern I think a lot of women might have about keeping themselves protected from the dangers that might come. I think she did well at balancing the good imp and bad parts of her mother. I definitely think her mother was abusive and so it must have taken a lot of courage knowing that her mother might read this story.
I'm not really going to put the faults of the book because I don't want to demenish her story but I just found the book lacking in some ways and not as engaging as it could be but overall it was a good memoir that might be a favorite for some.
TW: Abuse, Rape