This book is a fascinating story of a young woman who grew up as the daughter of hoarders. On the positive side, I couldn't put it down. Kimberly's story is pretty unusual, and she seems to love her parents deeply despite their serious issues. On the flip side, while the storytelling is good, it is very straightforward, and on some level, I couldn't understand why Kimberly didn't draw some more personal boundaries in this situation. Basically, her parents asked, begged, and cajoled her to come clean their house every time a crisis ensued. And she did. ( )

This book about growing up with and dealing with hoarding parents in your adult life, was an interesting read. While there are (of course) some descriptions of the state of their houses and apartments, the focus is not on the hoarding, but the people behind it. I liked it a lot for that reason, that we get to know the people behind the hoarding instead of it just being humiliation porn for non-hoarders to laugh at. ( )

Excellent memoir. Well written. The author seems to have dealt well with a difficult childhood ( )

This book seems to somehow fit into the plethora of dysfunctional family books I’ve read: Educated, Between Two Kingdoms, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard in the Richest Country on Earth, Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family. However, this family really isn’t broken. The parents are merely hoarders, and their daughter, the author, is so damaged by their obsession, it seems as if she will never recover. Somehow she does, although Mom and Dad never do really conquer their ailment. Maybe no hoarder ever does. The book will tap into any reader’s childhood that included parents who were unable or unwilling to do whatever they could to provide a completely normal environment for their children. That probably includes about all of us. I know it includes me. My only criticism of Miller’s book is the constant repetition of disasters in her parents’ living quarters became a bit much. I guess it became a bit much for her too, though. ( )

When I first saw the title of this memoir, I thought it was another story about recovery from drugs or alcohol. I tend to be a sucker for those. However, Ms. Miller writes about growing up as the only daughter of a hoarder. Miller talks about the struggles she went through trying to hide her home life from her friends. Not only was her father a hoarder but her mother was struggling with depression as well. This is one of those times that I wish we could give half stars because I really think this was about 2.5 stars. It was interesting to see hoarding from the inside but I found myself wanting more on the mental health side of things. I'm thinking that's just my therapist training coming out but it would have been a more well rounded retelling I think. All in all, I think this book is worth the read just to see hoarding impacts everyone and how much of a struggle it is to recover. I would especially recommend this book to anyone who may have watched Hoarders on A&E and thought, why don't they just stop? This book might help you understand that a little better.

Received from NetGalley. ( )