Wow, this is quite a memoir. Living her life on the run, Cheryl Diamond constantly changed names, countries, and her religion. Her parents and her brother and sister moved from country to country. It was all a mystery to her as to why they were running, and why they had no other family, Known as Harbhajan as a child, she then becomes Crystal, then Cheryl. Finally, as she becomes older, she learns more about her family, and the secrets they are keeping.
She tries to make sense of her identity and her roots. When she finally discovers the truth, she is surprised by more than just the truth of why they are on the run, but also her family.
Hard to believe that people live this way and survive. Amazing. ( )

Beautifully written book with an incredible story. Despite the difficult people and situations, it is delightful to read. ( )

Born to a family of outlaws, Harbhajan/Cheryl only knows running, hiding, and sticking with her parents and two siblings at all costs. This book follows her life from a 4 year old to a 30 year old. I hate to admit, but I did not enjoy this book. The voice was the same throughout, whether Harbhajan was 4, 12, or 20. Background details were so vague throughout the story that there didn't seem to be any momentum or forward progression. Overall, not a book I would re-read or recommend. ( )

2.5 stars

Interesting, but I don't think I believe this memoir is true. Maybe I could believe a family of 5 could run from Interpol and that rando Canadian conman dad could pull it off in the 502-70s, but once you hit the 1980s and later--nope, I can't believe this is all true. Parts, sure. But I also can't believe that "Cheryl" was a near-Olympic-level gymnast, AND an excellent age group swimmer, AND a successful model, AND her brother (who drops out of the story completely) was a near-Olympic-level swimmer, AND had/has horrible Crohn's Disease AND her father tricked Israel and a Jewish University in NY into believing and participating in Israeli/Jewish life as if they were Jewish, AND that her grandfather was an important Interpol/police agent in Luxembourg, AND she was paid millions for her first book, AND so on and so forth.

When she's not whining about how hard things were, she's bragging about how awesome she is (beautiful! talented! driven! strong!). The older she got in the story, the worse it got. ( )

Cheryl Diamond was born Harbhajan, Bhajan to her family, and she grew up constantly on the run from international police. Her father taught her the "unbreakable outlaw code" to trust no one but family, and her mother homeschooled her and her older siblings, Frank and Chiara. It's them against the world, but as Bhajan grows older she starts to see the cracks as her father becomes violent and controlling, her siblings distant, and her mother quiet.

This book has almost inevitably been compared to Educated, another memoir of living with a dysfunctional family and growing up to get away from it. But there are huge differences, most clearly in the way Diamond chooses to tell the story in a series of vignettes, observing without having the same self-reflection as Westover. As a result, the reader feels less of a confidante and more held at arm's length from Bhajan. This makes some of the dysfunction all the more shocking, when Diamond relays one of her memories without comment and the reader is left reading, say, her father's motives between the lines. But it's also frustrating for readers of memoirs who enjoy the feeling of getting "behind the scenes" in someone's life and instead are left shut out by Diamond's sometimes emotionless recounting. Still, it's a fascinating story and one I would recommend to fans of memoirs of unusual childhoods. Diamond's definitely stands out among the pack. ( )