Doctored

Highly recommended. Engages you from start to finish.

Honest, brutal, and ultimately, uplifting. This woman's story is a tribute to the strength of faith, both in being true to herself and also in battling almost insurmountable odds to keep the role of mother (and grandmother) hers. Memorable read.

Doctored is a true story.
Please be warned there's a lot of strong content here so read at your own risk.
It's always hard to write a review up on someone's personal experience...especially of this caliber.
The story starts off with Polly describing her life as an adoptive child. She faced emotional neglect, verbal abuse, and a lot of rejection from her adoptive mother. She coped with it by immersing herself in drama and music at her school. She played piano often times composing music. She also loved riding her bike in the countryside. Often fantasizing about a great family that would love her.

The bad things didn't stop there, she got involved with a man whom also abused her physically. On top of that he took both of their children away from her. Scared and traumatized, she turned to her doctor, he promised to help her to get her kids back from their father, but he lied. Instead he ended up raping her multiple times. It's horrible all the trauma that polly endured in her life. I felt so bad for her and angry at the same time. Despite the content in this book, I would definitely recommend it. Thank you to NetGalley and Matador for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book. It was heartbreaking in so many ways and also heartwarming in others. I just want to hug the main character, honestly.

The author's turgid prose left me wanting. It's hard and painful to write about the abuse that's been endured and I absolutely admire the courage and strength it takes to do it, but I could not get into the way in which it was written.