My Past Was Written, the Taking of Innocence: A Diary of Child Abuse and Escape

Rating:
Summary: first-hand account from a teenager's diary
Review: Although the subtitle calls it "a diary of child abuse and escape," the reader only realizes towards the end of the book that this is indeed the author's unedited diary from her teenage years.

As a high school teacher I immediately recognized the writing as that of a high school-level student who is too lazy to use punctuation and to edit their work. This was annoying being that the book is presented as one written by a 41-year-old woman. It is only later that the reader realizes that the author started a diary when she was a teenager where she began to recount the abuse she endured as a child. The book is all the more painful for that realization. It is a raw, up-to-the-minute account of what the author went through, very similar to the unbelievable experiences of Dave Pelzer's A Child Called It. In fact, if Dave Pelzer had kept a diary during his childhood, it might have very well read like this book does.

If this book were repackaged as a teenager's unedited diary (which is what it is; it's certainly not a book), it might indeed do very well for what it is. As it stands, few will give it the chance it deserves because the writing and editing are the most atrocious I have ever encountered in published form. In order to keep reading it, I read it as if the author were mentally disabled or severely educationally-challenged. But the insights are too poignant for that to have been the case, and when the author mentions much later in the book that she kept a diary, the pieces fall together and I realized that that must be what this book is, especially since the subtitle made no sense to me while I was reading the book.

I'm giving it three stars because the author deserves credit for sharing her story. I would actually like to read a follow-up book about her life after her abusive childhood ended.