What’s in it
Tap a tag: ❤ = this matters to me · tap again ✕ = don’t care · again to reset. The list below updates each time.
24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorWhat My Bones Know
Stephanie Foo · 352 pages
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A searing memoir of reckoning and healing by acclaimed journalist Stephanie Foo, investigating the little-understood science behind complex PTSD and how it has shaped her life“Achingly exquisite . . . providing real hope for those who long to heal.”—Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to SomeoneONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The
A Child Called "It"
Dave Pelzer · 184 pages
This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longe
Broken
Shy Keenan · 305 pages
Shy Keenan co-founded Phoenix Survivors to campaign for justice for victims of sexual abuse and to rescue children at risk. As a child, she was beaten by her mother and raped by her stepfather and his associates. This is her memoir.
Ma, He Sold Me for a Few Cigarettes
Martha Long · 478 pages
Born a bastard to a teenage mother in the slums of 1950s' Dublin, Martha grew up in squalid, freezing tenements, clothed in rags and forced to beg for food. Here she tells the story of her early life and recreates a lost era in which the shadow of the Catholic Church loomed large and if you didn't work, you didn't eat.
Damaged
Cathy Glass · 339 pages
'I'm not bad, am I, Cathy?' I held her closer to me. 'No sweet, of course you're not bad. What was happening to you was bad. It was never your fault. You mustn't think that.' Eight-year old Jodie's behavior is so challenging and disturbing that she has already been through five foster carers in four months. But it is Jodie who is the real victim. Only Cathy has th
A Brother's Journey
Richard B. Pelzer · 278 pages
Mom has no one like David around to beat on anymore. I am more afraid of her than ever...I get in more trouble for anything I do or say. Now I find that I'm always in trouble and I don't know why. Now that David is gone, I'm afraid that she will try to kill me, like she tried to kill him. I'm afraid that she will treat me like an animal like she did him. I'm afraid that now I'm her IT. The Pelzer
The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls · 296 pages
A story about the early life of Jeannette Walls. The memoir is an exposing work about her early life and growing up on the run and often homeless. It presents a different perspective of life from all over the United States and the struggle a girl had to find normalcy as she grew into an adult.
A Stolen Life
Jaycee Dugard · 273 pages
In the summer of 1991 I was a normal kid. I did normal things. I had friends and a mother who loved me. I was just like you. Until the day my life was stolen. For eighteen years I was a prisoner. I was an object for someone to use and abuse. For eighteen years I was not allowed to speak my own name. I became a mother and was forced to be a sister. For eighteen years I survived an impossible
Beautiful Child
Torey L. Hayden · 413 pages
MORE THAN ONE MILLION COPIES OF TOREY HAYDEN'S BOOKS IN PRINT! "MOVING...AS LIVELY AND SURPRISING AS THE KIDS IT SO DEFTLY PORTRAYS, *BEAUTIFUL CHILD* PERSUADES US THAT EVEN THE MOST WITHDRAWN AND TROUBLED CHILD CAN BE REACHED IF SOMEONE TAKES THE TIME, PAYS ATTENTION, AND SINCERELY, DEEPLY CARES." *O* magazine Seven-year-old Venus Fox never spoke, never listened, never even acknowledged th
Bastard Out of Carolina
Dorothy Allison · 309 pages
Bone, an illegitimate child in a family of social outcasts, sees her mother's happiness with her new husband and will not tell when the stepfather begins abusing her in the 1950s.
I'm Glad My Mom Died
Jennette McCurdy · 320 pages
A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life. Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a
The Liars' Club
Mary Karr · 320 pages
The Texas refinery town of Leechfield, perched on the swampy rim of the Gulf, is famous for mosquitoes and the manufacture of Agent Orange - a place where the only bookstores are religious ones and the restaurants serve only fried food. A handful of the Leechfield oil workers gather regularly at the American Legion Bar to drink salted beer and spin long, improbable tales. They're the Liars' Club.
Ugly
Constance Briscoe · 320 pages
Constance's mother systematically abused her daughter, both physically and emotionally, throughout her childhood. Regularly beaten and starved, the girl was so desperate she took herself off to Social Services and tried to get taken into care. When that failed, she swallowed bleach 'because it kills all known germs and my mother always told me I was a germ'. When Constance was thirteen, her mother
Good Morning, Monster
Catherine Gildiner · 368 pages
As seen on Good Morning America's SEPTEMBER 2020 READING LIST and FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2020!"We need to read stories about folks who have been through hell and kept going... Fascinating." —Glennon Doyle, A Favorite Book of 2020 on Good Morning America"Gildiner is nothing short of masterful—as both a therapist and writer. In these pages, she has gorgeously captured both the privilege of being given ac
Spilled Milk
K.L. Randis
Brooke Nolan is a battered child who makes an anonymous phone call about the escalating brutality in her home. When social services jeopardize her safety, condemning her to keep her father's secret, it's a glass of spilled milk at the dinner table that forces her to speak about the cruelty she's been hiding. In her pursuit of safety and justice, Brooke battles a broken court system that pushes
Amelia's Story: A Childhood Lost
D.G. Torrens · 386 pages
Not My Father's Son
Alan Cumming · 304 pages
**Acclaimed actor Alan Cumming shares the raw and emotional story of his turbulent relationship with his father and the long-buried family secrets that shaped his life and career.** A beloved star of stage, television, and film, Alan Cumming is celebrated for his unparalleled diversity and fearlessness as an artist. However, his success conceals a painful childhood marked by the heavy hand of a
Three Little Words: A Memoir
Ashley Rhodes-Courter · 320 pages
Ashley spent nine years in foster care after being taken away from her mother. She endured many caseworkers, moving from school to school and manipulative, humiliating and abusive treatment from one foster family. See how she survives and eventually thrives against the odds.
Etched in Sand: A True Story of Five Siblings Who Survived an Unspeakable Childhood on Long Island
Regina Calcaterra · 306 pages
Calcaterra and her siblings endured a series of foster homes and intermittent homelessness in the shadow of the Hamptons. She managed to rise above her past while fighting to keep her brother and three sisters together. An unforgettable reminder that, regardless of social status, the American dream is still within reach for those who have the desire and the determination to succeed.
Losing Hope
Colleen Hoover · 380 pages
"In Hopeless, Sky left no secret unearthed, no feeling unshared and no memory forgotten, but Holder's past remains a mystery. He is haunted by the little girl he let walk away from him and he has spent his entire life searching for her. He had hoped that he would finally gain closure and be able to rid himself of his guilt the moment they were reconnected. But he could not have anticipated that th
Street Kid
Judy Westwater, Wanda Carter · 320 pages
After a childhood lived in terror, in 1994, Judy was presented with an Unsung Heroes Award for her charity work with street children in South Africa. Her moving story came to light after Judy was interviewed by John Peel on BBC's "Home Truths". This title offers the story of her early years, a story of a child who refused to give up.
Behind Closed Doors: A True Story of Abuse, Neglect and Survival Against the Odds
Jenny Tomlin · 264 pages
Not Without My Sister
Kristina Jones, Celeste Jones, Juliana Buhring · 432 pages