Rating memoirs are hard ... it can't really reflect the "story" when it's a real life, so it's more the writing and presentation. As will all memoirs, I have to take them with a grain of salt. It's the author's perception and memory, but unlike researched and documented non-fiction, I don't know how much of it is truth. All the dialog? The memory from when she was three years old? And even with all the detail there was with that, does she ever mention pain? Burns are SO painful, even just a small one that doesn't require any treatment. She never even mentions pain.

As with most memoirs, this was 1st person/past tense.  It was set up chronologically ... although it did start with the "present" moment then went back to tell the story. I personally don't care for this technique. Here (and in other books/tvs/movies) it's a spoiler really. We know that our MC makes it out, we know that the parents never step up. I think I'd prefer to just start the story without this first section. There is The Desert (27 chapters), Welch (27 chapters), New York City (13 chapters) ... these are all continual in count, which I think is easier to keep straight than starting over with Ch1 in each section. Then there's a final part/chapter (Thanksgiving) which pops forward in time and wraps things up. 

So much of the author's life she is hiding her past and her parents, until she wrote this book. Unlike some other books (Educated, Into Thin Air, etc) which have had some clapback on the "memories" presented, I haven't heard of that with this. I do wonder what the siblings have to say ... is this all "correct and true?" I'd really like an author's note with some explanations. Does she have this picture perfect memory, or were some of these stories of her childhood told to her and she made them her own? The dialog ... why were some things actually written as quotes, and others as her recollection of what people said (in other non-fiction, the author will often differentiate presentation, saying that anything in quotes has documentation, was transcribed, etc). 

This did create feelings of hatred in me for the parents ... it's hard to comprehend how they could live like this, and it is amazing that the kids (well, three of the four) managed to make it out okay. 

The mom's property ... worth maybe a million dollars? Wouldn't they have had to pay property taxes on it every year? They certainly didn't, so it was hard to believe that they didn't lose the property at some point.  Maureen was sent to an upstate hospital for a year ... is that like prison, who paid for that?

The writing was good, it kept me interested, pulled on my emotions ... but always in the back of my mind was just "this can't be TRUE exactly as presented, with dialog and perfect recall of all these events". Did she keep a journal? I know she was a writer/journalist, but how early did she start recording her own story? I just wanted more background information. 

Even with my rating ... my feelings toward this aren't that positive.