I enjoyed the story for the most part, and I adored the growth we got to see in Larry Newton. It was engaging and his analysis of Shakespeare was fascinating to me. That said, this memoir had a significant struggle with the "white professor/savior" trope. I get that it's real life, but even so, it was frustrating. Especially when the professor in question went out of her way to state she wasn't a reformer and seemed to think prisoners should "earn" basic rights, like not being in solitary, rather than being granted them as human beings. Topping it off, as engaging as Mr. Newton's story was, it was frustrating that the book, already about a white professor, focused on the life-changing impact primarily of a white incarcerated person when the vast majority of incarcerated people are people of color. So overall, it was good,but it definitely could've been better.

I think I would've gotten more out of it if I had read it rather than listened - the book is a behemoth and it is intense and kind of fragmented when listening on audio. It was a HARD listen, and that's the point. Very well-done snapshot into the life of a black man in the 1930s or 1940s.

This book was utterly amazing. An amalgamation of fantasy, science-fiction, anthropology, sociology, psychology, horror...A blend of genres and topics that somehow all came together in a wonderful and cohesive story arc.... Highly, highly recommend.

Very nuanced and beautiful rendition of a child-to-adolescent relationship, marred by abuse and neglect.

I was disappointed with this book. The title lead me to believe it would be more Carly's story, but it was primarily her father's story. It was riddled with wording like "afflicted with autism" and painting autism as something that caused Carly to act "badly." Definitely interested in reading more memoirs that don't paint autism as something you "beat" or "overcome."

This book is incredibly emotional and fact-filled. This is so important to read to understand race in American politics.

Wow. I waited way too long to read this book. One of the most poignant reads about the adolescent experience when compounded by traumas, without being overwrought or making the trauma the only "interesting" thing going on in the book.

So good. The perspectives, the trauma discussions, the back-and-forth between the twins' at 13/14 and 16...So. Good. The mental health and trauma pieces were spot-on and I very much appreciated that.