Sex, drugs and more sex and some more drugs. This is the starting point of this memoir as Donna D. Conrad tells us her experiences throughout the sixties on her early teens, narrated in a objective manner with very well detailed acts that lacked responsibility, or care, on her part, where her choices led her, many times into deep trouble.

From chapter one, we can see that there was a lot going on. She was young, and with sexual instincts running high, looking for adventure and thrills but most of all, a way out of the hell she was living in for most of her life because, apparently, the sixties were much wilder than we think.

The tick-to-tack narrative of Donna D. Conrad helps lot in the reading, as memories are told in a “this is all you need to know for now” manner, light, humorous, sometimes dry and factual and always to the point, and gives the book a pleasant casual atmosphere while we learn about her upbringing with the violent father that beat up her drunk mother, her need to be protected from danger, which created the lack of belief in her own actions/choices. Domestic violence is something that marks the book, and we as reader can see the effects, on the long run, on the kids that see that as they are growing up, something that many parents don’t even consider.

This is a great example of a book, because it lets young girls see the power of choosing, depending and not taking responsibility, and the consequences of it and actually choosing a better path, as the author did, in order to get to where they want to get, and have the life they dream to have.

.... Full review here