While reading this book, it became clear by the first 50 pages why the Goodreads reviews are so divided. RUNNING WITH SCISSORS touches on a lot of the same themes as the other wildly popular memoir, Jeanette Walls' THE GLASS CASTLE: mental illness, non-conformity, class, poverty, and parenting run amok in these books, with we're-older-now-so-let's-escape-the-madness results. But while Walls sewed together a narrative with redemptive meaning and hope at the end, Burroughs relies solely on the sensationalist nature of his childhood to keep the reader going. He wants readers to become fascinated the same way drivers are fascinated with watching other people's car crashes, and it just doesn't work for a full 200 pages. I wanted more of a story. I wanted more feeling and thinking.

But in the end, I wish Burroughs the best. The Finches children and he deserved more love than they got.