Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Year Published: 2019
Genre: YA (adult?) non-fiction (memoir)
Pages: 290
Rating: 5 out of 5
Location (my 2019 Google Reading map): USA
FTC Disclosure: I bought this book with my own money
Summary (from the inside flap of the book): When she was thirteen years old, Laurie Halse Anderson was a shy, bookish girl who was raped by a boy she trusted. Today, she's known as the New York Times bestselling author of Speak and many other novels, a two-time National Book Award nominee, and an advocate and activist.
In this powerful and searing book of free verse, Anderson tells the story she's never shared publicly before: what happened to her as a teenager, the path to recovery she built herself, and how she turned her pain into art that would go on to help millions of readers the world over.
Review: Wow. Halse Anderson has such a way with words. I knew that when I read Winter Girls, Speak (the novel and graphic novel), The Impossible Knife of Memory, Fever 1793, Twisted, and Catalyst, but with this free verse memoir, she has brought herself into her reader's lives.
Her poetry is fluid, intense, effective, and powerful, capturing the events and emotions of her life. I love that we got to know more about her growing up years in which her family struggled with money, addiction, and relationships. I think the story of how she came to terms with the rape and finding her voice is important for other survivors (and their friends and family) to hear.
Hearing about her book's impact on readers and the truths they whisper to her was amazing. How wonderful to know that work you've done has made others feel supported and not alone.
If you are a fan of Speak or any of Halse Anderson's other novels, I highly recommend this memoir.
Challenges for which this counts:
FTC Disclosure: I bought this book with my own money
Summary (from the inside flap of the book): When she was thirteen years old, Laurie Halse Anderson was a shy, bookish girl who was raped by a boy she trusted. Today, she's known as the New York Times bestselling author of Speak and many other novels, a two-time National Book Award nominee, and an advocate and activist.
In this powerful and searing book of free verse, Anderson tells the story she's never shared publicly before: what happened to her as a teenager, the path to recovery she built herself, and how she turned her pain into art that would go on to help millions of readers the world over.
Her poetry is fluid, intense, effective, and powerful, capturing the events and emotions of her life. I love that we got to know more about her growing up years in which her family struggled with money, addiction, and relationships. I think the story of how she came to terms with the rape and finding her voice is important for other survivors (and their friends and family) to hear.
Hearing about her book's impact on readers and the truths they whisper to her was amazing. How wonderful to know that work you've done has made others feel supported and not alone.
If you are a fan of Speak or any of Halse Anderson's other novels, I highly recommend this memoir.
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