What Happens in the Family, Memoir Review

What Happens in the Family: A Story of Survival

Author A. M. Young

Thank you to author A. M. Young for providing me with a copy of What Happens in the Family: A Story of Survival in exchange for this honest review.

What Happens in the Family is a harrowing true story about familial abuse and surviving long enough to break the cycle. Author A. M. Young exposes all of her darkest secrets in order to tell a story that is likely far more common than any of us would like to think.

In fact, her story is so far removed from my own personal childhood memories it was hard for me to believe. It’s much easier to think that this much trauma couldn’t possibly happen to one young child. But I know that it does, What Happens in the Family forces you to see it from a first hand perspective.

This is a great lesson for many of us. I know when I find the news too distressing I like to turn it off. This helps my personal mental status but it doesn’t help any of the problems. Seeing real accounts and real memoirs from real survivors is a necessary step toward solving the problem. We all need to see and admit that the problem is there! Even though it didn’t happen to us personally (hopefully).

Young’s account is straightforward and graphic. She was unfortunately and brutally sexually abused by nearly every man in her life starting at a very young age. But men aren’t the only ones to blame here. Women helped the abuse either explicitly by actually participating or complicitly by never stopping what they knew was happening. Everything was just burried in secrets, to keep within the family.

It is not until the end of the memoir that the reader gets a bit of hope. Young survived all of this abuse and gave birth to a son while she was still a kid herself. But she didn’t continue the cycle of violence. She gave her child love and all the right kinds of attention. It’s powerful to see how one person can shut down generations worth of abuse.

The reason What Happens in the Family is not a 5 star book is simple. The writing lacks style and variety. The book is short chapters with short sentences that are all structured the same. First he did this, then he this, then this, then that. The choppiness makes it difficult to stay engaged with a narrative flow.

Regardless of style preferences the content is important and Young’s is a story worth telling. She was strong enough to make it through the abuse to tell her tale. Many others never become old enough to do the same. Read her story and take it to heart, and know that far too many others could use help right now as well.

4/5 eager young students 🙋🏾‍♀️🙋🏾‍♀️🙋🏾‍♀️🙋🏾‍♀️

As a remedy to reading this intense memoir maybe check out Primer, about a young foster kid who has good things in her life.

in order to keep me up to my ears in books please consider using the following amazon affiliate link to purchase this product. it’s at no extra cost to you and would really help me out, thank you and happy reading!

Buy it here: What Happens in the Family: A Story of Survival