Assessment:

Plot/Idea: The author takes her relationship between her abusive father and emotionally stagnant mother and writes a riveting, poignant book that takes her on a journey of healing through attempts at improving her relationships with her family and finding happiness in her own life.

Prose: Estill knows how to tell a good story. She knows that from the first sentence of the first chapter you need to pull a reader in, and with these first two sentences she will have readers hooked. She captures the stress and turmoil of being required to care for her brothers so well that readers can begin to ache for her that she and her siblings are in such a dysfunctional home. The author is also effective at conveying emotion in this rollercoaster of anger, laughter, sadness and more. 

Originality: Readers will be thoroughly captivated by the author's tales of her family. Though the length of the book could be reconsidered, with some tightening and editing of certain stories, the book would be even more captivating and move along at a quicker pace. 

Character Development/Execution: The author does a great job of not only telling her own real-life story, but weaving in her real-life siblings and parents as viable 'characters'. Their stories become just as important as her own and we learn about their own emotional trauma from the author's childhood. 

Date Submitted: January 14, 2022