Punished: A mother's cruelty. A daughter's survival. A secret that couldn't be told.

I just finished teaching a unit on personal narratives to my sophomores, so throughout the unit we read excerpts from various published memoirs.  For one particular unit, I found 10 different introductory paragraphs to memoirs to show them how to write a strong introduction.  After going through my very short list of memoirs I've read, I started just searching "memoir" in Amazon and reading samples of any book I found.  Punished was one of those books.  I found the first chapter suspenseful, used it in my lesson, and purchased the book.

I'm still not sure why I read it, though.

The book describes a girl who, throughout her entire childhood, suffers from serious physical and sexual abuse.  It's a more mature version of A Child Called It.  The horrendous punishments the child's mother inflicted on her get worse every time you think they can't.  Then, her grandfather sexually abuses her while her mother sits back and knowingly allows it to happen.

Was the book interesting?  Sure.  Did it keep me turning the pages?  Yes.

But here is my overall problem with this memoir - nothing happens to the "bad people."  In fictional stories, I can deal with sadness and cruelty and evil characters.  But I do not want to read a true story that ends with the antagonist simply getting away.  I think one of my main motivations for turning those pages and suffering through the descriptions of this person's life was the anticipation for that moment when justice would be served.  But it never was.  The father (who also turned a blind eye to the physical abuse) dies of cancer.  The grandfather dies of heart disease.  The mother lives a long life and dies naturally, with her daughter by her side.  No one is punished.  Everyone is forgiven.

I am a Christian person and I believe in forgiveness... but I also am a mother and I believe in hanging someone up by their fingernails (or worse) when they treat children this way.

If you enjoy memoirs, this book is well-written and it is an interesting story.  Just don't go into it expecting a happy ending.  The author turns out all right in the end, but that's all the happiness you'll get.