The Story of What Happened and What Helped

Everybody Else's Girl by Sarah Sawyers-Lovett
Published: September 12, 2013 by Sweet Candy Press
It's hard for me to really come up with the words I want to say about this memoir. Part of me wants to say I enjoyed reading, except the author goes through such horrible times in her childhood it almost feels wrong to say I enjoyed it. I'm not quite sure, but maybe phrasing it I as enjoyed the time I spent with it sounds better.

The book reminds me of Regina Calcaterra's memoir except more detailed and more graphic. It is hard to read, and there are parts that I guarantee will make you uncomfortable, but I still do think it's worth reading.

If I have any complaint about this it's that the story stops when the author graduates high school. Instead I wished it would have continued, and we could have seen how Sawyers-Lovett was able to overcome her childhood. You know she has since she's able to write this book, and shares some of the resources that helped her on the way, but I wish we would have had a window into that part of her life as well. So much of this book deals with depressing situations, and I would have loved to have had it end a little more positively, or at least as much as it could have.

But in a lot of ways it feels like the book itself was a big step on the road to recovery. It seems that writing about these events really forced Sawyers-Lovett to comes to terms with her childhood. I did lead a completely different type of life from the author, which did make it a bit hard to relate to certain situations. However I think if I had a similar background, I could see how this book could be a major steps towards someone else being able to turn their life around.

4/5

Disclosure: I was provided this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.