steve elk

I love reading the 1-star reviews for this book, because they are either delusional to abuse McCurdy opens up about, solely reactive to the title/cover (possibly because they had the privilege of never having to deal with abusive family members, or are in denial about their own), or (in one admitted case) didn't even bother reading the book. This is no "Mommy Dearest", and it is certainly not a "hit piece", but rather McCurdy reconciling with her past, and how her present self is healing from it. There is both resentment for not having known the signs of manipulation, the scars left by abuse disguised as "care", and the lingering bits of love still felt for the person who inflicted them. While the Nickelodeon years are mentioned, they do play more of a background to everything else. Anyone with "difficult" family members, who can now recognize past abuse and manipulation in their lives from these figures, while still in conflict with the small, brief moments of genuine love that were scattered at best, will immediately get 'it" when seeing this title and cover, and McCurdy reminds us to not always romanticize the dead.