Sarah Tomlinson (1) (1976–)

A special thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh Sarah... I really wanted to like your book so much more than I actually did. I kept waiting for something to happen, some epiphany but nothing really happened.

Her accolades and experience are impressive. I'm sure she's a gifted writer, in fact I would actually like to read some of her music reviews which are probably fantastic, but I really didn't care for her style. Her story is told so rapidly, like one giant conversation that makes your head spin. You know when you haven't seen someone for a long time, and you talk incessantly, cramming in a lifetimes worth of conversation into one evening? That's how I felt reading this. I didn't feel like she had found her voice or her place in life, perhaps that is why she wrote the book like this? I just craved more detail from her not the staccato storytelling.

I was also waiting for a proper conclusion; I thought that the ending would mark something monumental but there was no build up and it just ended. It was as if her goal was to cover off as as much as possible without going into any detail.… (más)

.."it was not because i was the bad, unlovable girl i had always seen myself to be, but because he could not be the dad he was supposed to be."

For years people have thought that kids don't hear, see, or absorb the crap that swirls all around them in a family home.....but this book, is here to say oh yes they do. And tho each child handles it differently the scars are there.
For girls it is primarily the father or the lack thereof..... Females will eternally look for whatever it takes to fill the void. Struggle to figure out how they are to blame so it can be 'fixed'.
This is a memoir. Not a pity party tale but a story of love, searching,a needing and lack of self. Two lines made me jump they were so relatable....1 ) regarding books- "felt an uneasy peace that was a relief from my normal waiting state. Inside the world of a book i could forget my own longing and lack." and 2) "a part of me would always want to be somewhere else"… (más)

Sarah Tomlinson's memoir about her complicated relationship with her father was an engaging and rewarding read. It is about the minefield that is left when a parent leaves home and is absent and neglectful. It is about the hole that is created and the attempts to fill it with whatever works at the moment. It is also about the struggle to understand why, the tendency towards self-blame and, in this case, the fortitude to find a way to make meaning and enjoy life. Though Sarah shows us how her self-loathing sometimes made her passive and impulsive I admired how actively she did pursue her dreams and talents, whether it was to go to college or to leave a place that did not feel like home. I also enjoyed reading about her relationship to her father, who I liked and probably did his best, which, lucky for him, his goodhearted daughter, came to understand. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to review this book.… (más)