I read an opinion about this book by my sister, after reading the opinion I knew that I wanted to read for myself. Of course sisters share and she let me have the book.
The opening of the book is heart rendering, you will feel drained and emotional while reading, there are no fairy tales or laughter, just heartache, cruelness, torture and fear.
It is the story of David Pelzer who also wrote the book, it is about his childhood and upbringing by a cruel, cold drunken evil sad excuse for a mother.
The facts in this book refer to David's case of child abuse as the 3rd most horrific case that the USA has dealt with.
When David was a toddler his parents and family were all considered the norm, his mother treated him like any mother would treat their child until things start to change. She turns to drink and starts to torment David, at this point David's life ends as far as childhood goes.
As I entered the next stage of the book I find myself wondering how lucky our children are and how petty the things they whine about are, I also find myself enraged that this happened.
The family had dogs, the dogs were treated with more respect than David, he fought and endless battle in his will to survive, he was fed on scraps, leftovers and the dogs scraps, not all the time, he was starved continuously and started to fantasise about food, he would steal food from class mates lunchboxes, he got caught and paid for his crime at the hands of his I don't want to call her mother because this is not what a mother is.
The torture and punishment which was used on David was-starving, constant punching and kicking him, smashing his face on a mirror and making him say "I am bad", whip him with the dog chain, and she decided to strip him of his name and referred to David as "it".
He slept down in the basement on a camp bad with newspaper to keep him warm, he never had new clothes or toys, he did all the chores and he had to do them
in a specific time or he would pay the price.
One time his mother held his arm over the gas stove and burnt him, she ordered him to climb on top and lie across the flames, who could do that.
She developed new torture treatments including mixing a bucket of ammonia with a cleaning fluid, creating a gas that choked and left David coughing up blood, she also stabbed him and after treating his wounds, she did not take him to hospital and the very next day, ordered him to do his chores.
Another torture method was to have him lie in a cold bath in winter, with no clothes on and keeping his head in the water for hours on end. His brothers fetched their friends to look at David.
There is too much to carry this opinion on, but I would ask anyone to read it.
David Pelzer to me is a hero, to have lived the life he did with that woman shows how much courage David has.
It also brings home the subject of child abuse, these things are all true, they happen whether we like it or not, if only someone could have got to David sooner, he would have been stopped from going through this awful childhood.
Organisations like child-line and NSPCC are so important to these children, they are charities who we should all support, after all we were all children once.
I now eagerly await the next book to see if David got any happiness after his rescue.