The Only Girl in the World: A Memoir | 
pickIf you want a book that will grip you from the first sentence to the last, this is the book for you. Maude, is an innocent child at the hands of two mentally unstable people. The abuse she endures and the losses she overcomes are both inspiring and heartbreaking. I really recommend this one.
so-soMaude‘s childhood was grim as her father attempted to mold her into the perfect “super-human” by making her hold an electric fence without flinching, locking her in the cellar at night, and making her bury her only friend, her dog. Somehow she managed to escape. This is a harrowing account of her childhood, but it abruptly ends as Maud makes her escape. I wanted more. This was a good book, but I feel like it ended way too soon.
pickA heartbreaking, unbelievable memoir of many beyond horrific events. Thankfully, it is also a tale of the redemptive power of literature.
pickWow! What a story of resiliency for Maude who shares her harrowing tale of growing up isolated in the french countryside with her delusional parents. She endured many cruel “test” derived from her father‘s paranoid POV. A true triumph of spirit story.
A messed up memoir of isolation, brutality, and crazy parents. It‘s too much for me.
Today‘s library haul. The top two books were impulse grabs that I‘ve never seen before. They sound good though! The bottom right was my hold—I‘m curious to see if it‘s fantastic like her first book or a run of the mill thriller like her second. The other two are for my girls. I‘m hoping the sports book will pacify G until the new Rebel Girls book gets here. #libraryhaul
“Three years later, age 59, Louis Didier liquidated his assets, bought a house near Cassel, between Lille and Dunkirk, and withdrew to live there with Janine in order to devote himself entirely to carrying out the project he devised back in 1936: to make his child a super human being. That child was me.”
This is a memoir.
How can I possibly read anything else now??? Looks like it‘s going to be a long night! #CrushngMyTBRList
so-soFascinating...but strangely told. Maybe it‘s a coping mechanism on the author‘s part but her narration was oddly distant. Curious what others think.
How can these moments be recollected so clearly and accurately? Does anyone doubt them? She is a child young as four when the narrative begins.
pick“As a little girl, I used to make a promise to myself and seal it with a prayer: ‘If I ever get out, I‘ll be in awe of everything I see. I pray that my father‘s voice will stay shut away in this house and won‘t follow me everywhere I go.‘”
Incredible read. A truly harrowing and heartbreaking story, at times very difficult to read, but ultimately so inspiring. The first-person present narration made it an unusual memoir reading experience.
Just read this article about the author on npr - it looks so sad but so good. https://www.npr.org/2017/12/09/569241086/a-fathers-cruel-mission-to-create-the-o...
