Bastard Out of Carolina

Rating:
Summary: Painfully unforgetable page turner
Review: This is an extremely insightful and sensitive portrayal of a sexually abused child from the rural South. I felt for the main character--Bone--as she bottled up the embarrassment and pain of her stepfather's sexual advances, while the young girl's mother--Anney Boatwright stood by her husband. I couldn't put the book down. It's definitely a must read!
Also recommend: Nightmares Echo by Katlyn Stewart, Shades of Grey by Peyton Mathie, Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks.

Rating:
Summary: Very well done
Review:
This is a very well written book, with much emotion behind the story. It captured my heart. As a southern girl I could almost 'see' the story.
Also recommended: Nightmares Echo and Running With Scissors...all the above books are 5 star+

Rating:
Summary: Lingering
Review: This book is powerful. It's one of those stories that endures, that stays fresh in your memory no matter how many books you've read since, that stays as livid as a razor slash through your jugular. I am not a sentimental reader. I don't normally fall for the saccharine, maudlin stories you can buy at the supermarket. So it's not for nothing that I say I write this review with tears in my eyes after having just finished reading this novel. Allison's prose is unadorned and honest. Her characters are real. Sometimes too much so. The drama is never over the top but always gripping and moving. I can't believe I waited so long to read it.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: Allison's "Bastard out of Carolina" is the epitome of raw honesty. Years after seeing the film version of this semi-autobigraphical novel- I am still stunned. Bone takes the reader on a intense journey of her love-hate realtionship with her mother. It spans over several years as Bone, on the cusp of womanhood, deals with her mother addiction to love, booze, and one very toxic man. The sicklove triangle between Bone, her mother and her lover is one you won't easliy forget. Bastard out of Carolina is heartbreaking, yet, you never feel like you are being manipulated to feel for these characters, Bone in particular. Prehaps it is the tone that Allison sets from the begining. She never falls into any of the syrupy emotional tricks some authors use to tug at our heart strings. Instead, she just let's Bone, our narrator, just tell us a story.It is Bone's unconditional love that gets to the reader in the end. The pure love a child gives to a mother. A love that forgives even the most tragic of events. A story about a Bastard out of Carolina


Rating:
Summary: Disturbing and yet
Review: I found myself continuing to read. Bone was a wonderful character full of depth and I wish that I could have been there to protect her. Her mother made me mad making her think it is her. It is awful to think that this happens to many children every day. This is a very graphic novel and as it has been said many times in other reviews not for everyone. I hope wherever Bone is things have gotten better but I am not too sure about that.

Rating:
Summary: Reality in a disturbing dose
Review: Many adult victims of child sexual abuse still live with that feeling of angst that the book arouses in people. The author did not bother to buffer this raw reality. I have worked with many children who acted out in the ways portrayed in this book. The ugly act of abuse tends to get externalized by the child (the masterbating that turns some readers off). As for the family atmosphere Bone was raised in--it was ambivalent, just as is the case quite often in real life: a strong bonded family who fails to protect. The book stirs many feelings of conflict within the reader. This book is an education for those who have not got close enough to touch the horror of abuse.