This a beautiful, disturbing memoir of a young Jamaican woman raised in a strict Rastafari family. Sinclair writes the story of her parents' abusive marriage and the way her father controlled and isolated their family. Sinclair turns to writing and poetry, with much success.

Sinclair writes beautifully. This memoir has a poetic flow without feeling overdone or pretentious. The subject matter, though, is hard to read. I had to take lots of breaks or the abuse - both physical and emotional - that the family sustains from the father were too much for me.

I do highly recommend this memoir, but be warned that it is brutally honest and she doesn't hold back from describing the abuse and how she and her family suffered from it. It's not all doom and gloom, but she's had a lot to overcome. And because she's still young, it's not a completed story. It ends on a relatively hopeful note, but she will obviously still have a lot to heal from. ( )

Maybe I'm a terrible person, but I didn't love this memoir. I didn't dislike it either. I found the narrative compelling and enjoyed the prose. But I just found it long. I had to really force myself to keep reading at times. A good memoir should be hard to put down. While I felt for the author, this book just dragged. ( )

One of the best memoirs I've read. You feel very present throughout each step of her life, and though her life is vastly different from mine it was very relatable. High control religions that oppress women are everywhere, always just a different flavor of the same thing. The men are in control and the women must submit. I found it interesting how long she stayed with her family while clearly deconstructing her upbringing, that was both a strange choice and a brave one. You can certainly tell she is a poet from this as well, and I am learning to enjoy the prose of poets more and more. ( )

This was moving, raw, painful, and ultimately so redemptive and beautiful as we see love survive in the most hostile of conditions. Orthodox forms of almost every religion turn women into slaves. and Rastafari is no different. For a movement based on the rejection of colonial enslavement, it is a bit surprising that half the population so comfortably consigns the other half to a life of slavery for their pleasure. Thankfully Safiya Sinclair broke those bonds and soared and shared her family's story in the most beautiful prose imaginable. I feel grateful to have read this. ( )

Safiya Sinclair was born to parents who followed the Rastafari religion. She was the oldest of four, three of whom were girls. Her father was the king of his own household, and while he was loving when Safiya was young, he became obsessed with his girls' purity and physically abusive towards his family. Safiya and her siblings are encouraged to excel in school, and she finds an outlet in poetry - reading and relating to it, and then writing it.

I love a good memoir, and this one is so well done. Sinclair recounts her childhood experiences with clarity and really makes you feel for her and her siblings - and even her parents - as she processes what happened. As you'd expect from a poet, her writing is lovely and she reflects on her life, on her father and mother, in a way that makes the reader her confidant. There are definitely moments of intensity, abuse on the page, and things that are hard to read, but there's a lot of hope too. Great for fans of Educated and other memoirs about overcoming childhood adversity and abuse. ( )