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A review by shansometimes
Hell If We Don't Change Our Ways: A Memoir by Brittany Means
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Wow. I read a lot of memoirs with heavy subject matter, but this one felt especially heavy—probably because most of the horrors in this book occurred when the author was just a child.
HELL IF WE DON'T CHANGE OUR WAYS is a raw, piercing memoir about the author's traumatic childhood. My God, she went through so much. From spending a solid chunk of her childhood either traveling or living in a car with her mother (always on the run from a man or on the way to live with someone new) to her mother's struggles with addiction and her tendency to disappear for months at a time, Means lived a tumultuous life in every way.
While it was incredibly sad, it was also reflective and beautiful. Means escaped everything and everyone she had become a victim of, sought therapy and healing, and developed an understanding of her mother's addiction and instability. It's a tough read that is hard to recommend, and the timeline she chose to tell the story was a little confusing. But HELL IF WE DON'T CHANGE OUR WAYS is an outstanding memoir if you're in the right headspace to ingest this type of unflinching, tragic content. It's blurbed by Kiese Laymon, author of the memoir HEAVY, which makes total sense and probably tells you plenty about this memoir if you've read his work.
I don't want to overemphasize the challenging content in this book because it doesn't get extremely graphic—it was just the way it's trauma after trauma after trauma that was disconcerting. I didn't want to believe this could all happen to one person, one child, in one lifetime. But the author had a way with words that I enjoyed, a dry wit, and a knack for flair that shows off her talent.
*This review is based on a digital advance copy provided by the publisher. All opinions are 100% honest and my own.
Content warnings: Child abuse, domestic violence, child neglect, drug abuse and addiction, sexual assault, suicidal ideation, toxic/abusive relationship, sexual abuse
HELL IF WE DON'T CHANGE OUR WAYS is a raw, piercing memoir about the author's traumatic childhood. My God, she went through so much. From spending a solid chunk of her childhood either traveling or living in a car with her mother (always on the run from a man or on the way to live with someone new) to her mother's struggles with addiction and her tendency to disappear for months at a time, Means lived a tumultuous life in every way.
While it was incredibly sad, it was also reflective and beautiful. Means escaped everything and everyone she had become a victim of, sought therapy and healing, and developed an understanding of her mother's addiction and instability. It's a tough read that is hard to recommend, and the timeline she chose to tell the story was a little confusing. But HELL IF WE DON'T CHANGE OUR WAYS is an outstanding memoir if you're in the right headspace to ingest this type of unflinching, tragic content. It's blurbed by Kiese Laymon, author of the memoir HEAVY, which makes total sense and probably tells you plenty about this memoir if you've read his work.
I don't want to overemphasize the challenging content in this book because it doesn't get extremely graphic—it was just the way it's trauma after trauma after trauma that was disconcerting. I didn't want to believe this could all happen to one person, one child, in one lifetime. But the author had a way with words that I enjoyed, a dry wit, and a knack for flair that shows off her talent.
*This review is based on a digital advance copy provided by the publisher. All opinions are 100% honest and my own.
Content warnings: Child abuse, domestic violence, child neglect, drug abuse and addiction, sexual assault, suicidal ideation, toxic/abusive relationship, sexual abuse
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment
Moderate: Addiction and Drug abuse