Empty Chairs

Apr 06, 2011 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

Empty Chairs is a shocking and extraordinary account of Stacey Danson's survival from the most harrowing sexual and physical abuse she was subjected to from the age of three by her mother and a succession of men. Yet there's an absence of self-pity in the recounting, Stacey tell it as it is, with emotional honesty and simplicity, making it all the more poignant. But Stacey is a survivor. We see the emergence of her indomitable spirit which helps her escape from her intolerable situation. At the...more Empty Chairs is a shocking and extraordinary account of Stacey Danson's survival from the most harrowing sexual and physical abuse she was subjected to from the age of three by her mother and a succession of men. Yet there's an absence of self-pity in the recounting, Stacey tell it as it is, with emotional honesty and simplicity, making it all the more poignant. But Stacey is a survivor. We see the emergence of her indomitable spirit which helps her escape from her intolerable situation. At the tender age of eleven she runs away and the rest of this astounding autobiography is given over to her survival on the streets where she arms herself with a knife and a few other essentials, including a radio, and earns herself a street name - Sassy Girl or Sassy. She lives from day to day, night to night, in cliff recesses, doorways, parks, beach huts and dock warehouses, surviving on old bruised fruit from the market and water from toilet blocks, or, when she can, food and drink from Paulie's cafe where the pimps and 'working girls' hang out. It would have been so easy for someone so young and vulnerable and desperate as Stacey to have ended up in prostitution, like the other girls at Paulie's cafe, but in spite of the growing menace and eventual abuse and violence Stacey is subjected to, she resists. She's made a promise to herself that she won't allow her body to be prostituted so she can 'keep mind and body intact'. We feel her exhaustion and fear as she is hounded from place to place with threats from predators or as a result of witnessing torture or murder. In spite of her constant references to her age, I had to keep pinching yourself to remember that I was reading the account of an eleven-year-old girl, so old is the head on her shoulders. Her intuition and outspokenness are undoubtedly her saviour. At the end of the book, we just begin to see glimpses of the next phase of Stacey's life and I think - I hope - this is a taster for her next book as I for one want to see what happens next on her incredible journey from then to now. (less)

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Mar 07, 2011 SenoraG rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, ebook, horror, kindle, non-fiction

I am not an easy person to shock but holy crap! What I found in the pages of this book did more than shock. It made me sick and angry. How can a person who is a mother treat a child in this way? It is beyond all reasoning. Not only the mother but the pieces of dirt men that come to abuse this child. One being a doctor!!! No one opens their mouth and puts a stop to it? NO. Sad, sick and should never happen to another child.

Empty Chairs is not an easy story to read but it is very well written. I f...more

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Feb 15, 2011 Bill Kirton rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Some of my friends have said of this book that they want to read it but, knowing the pain and horrors it chronicles, need to get themselves into the right frame of mind to do so. Others have admitted that they doubt whether they’ll actually get round to it. They should and must – for several reasons.

It’s an autobiographical story, written under a pseudonym, which reveals how a 3 year old was subjected to gross sexual abuses at the behest of her own mother, and forced to continue servicing visito...more Some of my friends have said of this book that they want to read it but, knowing the pain and horrors it chronicles, need to get themselves into the right frame of mind to do so. Others have admitted that they doubt whether they’ll actually get round to it. They should and must – for several reasons.

It’s an autobiographical story, written under a pseudonym, which reveals how a 3 year old was subjected to gross sexual abuses at the behest of her own mother, and forced to continue servicing visitors to the house until eventually, at the age of eleven, she ran away. Thereafter, life on the streets proved equally stressful, threatening to confirm all the negatives she felt about how people behave.

Perhaps that crude synopsis has made you join the ‘I’m not sure I could read this – it’s too horrible’ camp. If it has, it’s deprived you of an astonishing experience. Because this is a page turner and, bizarrely, a sort of celebration. I know that’s a cliché beloved of Amazon reviewers, but here it’s a fact. The story is relentlessly riveting. There’s tension, hidden (and not so hidden) forces at work, powerful characters, and observations of social interaction that are penetrating insights into what lurks behind the facades of sunny, happy-go-lucky Australia, where families picnic in the sun and glory in sights such as the fabulous Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The abuse inflicted on the infant Sassy-Girl (let’s use the street name she earned) was not at the hands of social low-lifes, but ‘respectable’ middle class professionals. When she eventually rebels and runs away, she has to find places to sleep, clothes to wear, ways to get food, and simultaneously avoid the pressure from pimps to recruit her into their stable. She experiences some kindnesses but her whole life seems to have been a denial that trust is possible between humans. When groups of girls at the zoo mock her for the clothes she’s wearing, she asks ‘why do people do those things? What was it that gave those girls the right to make fun of something they didn't understand?’ adding that ‘It would take a very long time to discover how common that trait was in humans’.

It would have been so easy (in theory) to succumb to prostitution to earn her keep, but the abuse she suffered makes her determined never to allow her body to be used again. As she says ‘I knew my soul would die anyway if I made a conscious decision to sell the child's body in which it was housed. I wasn’t being brave, or strong. I simply knew that all of me would survive – or another me would. What point would there be living without my soul and my spirit?’

An author’s note at the beginning speaks of the compulsion Danson had to write this, the promise she’d made to someone to do so, but she also admits that it’s taken longer to get round to it than she thought it would. And that’s part of the spell this narrative weaves. We’re getting the intimate day to day experiences of a 12 year old – the encounters, the threats, the violence, the alienation – but they’re all being recounted by the mature woman she survived to become.

And the narrator herself is aware of this, of course. This is a woman who knows how to write, how to use language, sometimes simply, always directly, to engage the reader, a woman who has come to know that friendships and trust are possible, and yet who’s re-entering the mind of her pre-teen self and reliving those years, with their innocence and ignorance. Because Sassy-Girl is uneducated (in formal terms). She thinks everyone speaks Australian (except Americans, whom she’s seen on TV and who speak American). ‘If someone had told me we all spoke English,’ she says, ‘I would have been even more confused.

At times, the mature narrator lends her voice to the girl. When she makes her way to the War Memorial, for example, she says she ‘spent the rest of the night in the company of the spirits of people who had died in a nightmare as well’. And there’s an awareness of the power of simplicity in sentences such as ‘I wanted to laugh and mean it’, or ‘It reminded me of the way I cried, back when I still could.’

But these aren’t intended to be criticisms. The moment Sassy-Girl suspects she’s feeling self-pity, she forces herself out of it. She’s a survivor and, despite all the torments she’s endured in these early years, what remains is an affirmation of her spirit, a confidence that, despite the enormous forces ranged against her, she won’t be a loser. It’s a compelling read, a reminder of the deepest evils of which we’re capable, but also a celebration of our ability to overcome.
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Jan 23, 2011 Tim Roux rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Simply put, this book is a classic - a superbly written gruesome real life horror story - and self-penned to boot, no ghost writer in sight (they would never write as well as Stacey anyway). It is direct, it is transcendent, it does not shut its eyes for a single second. Stacey Danson does for child abuse what Primo Levi did for the Holocaust - she survived it and rose above it (although Primo Levi committed suicide in the end).

Talking of suicide, you can see those chairs of the title emptying...more

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Aug 16, 2011 Gina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography, child-abuse, memoirs, rape

This is the autobiography of Stacey Denson from the age of 3 to the age of about 12. Stacey lives in middle class Sydney, Austraila and is prostituted by her mother started at the age of 3. Her mother sells her virginity at the age of 5. At the age of 11, she fights back and finds herself on the streets of Sydney. She must learn the rules of the street in order to survive. She must learn to remain invisible but she is able to stay alive on the streets not meant for an 11 year old girl. This stor...more

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May 20, 2011 Maxwell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Maxwell by: http://staceydansonemptychairs.blogspot.com/

When I began reading Empty Chairs by Stacey Danson I was completely unprepared for what I would find. If it were a novel, I would have put it down. The matter-of-fact narration depicting extreme sexual exploitation of a small child by her mother turned my stomach. But Empty Chairs isn't a novel. It is Stacy Danson's life story. I read on through tears; my heart filled with horror, sympathy, and anger. But I read on.

In her superbly written auto-biography, the author unfolds a vision of hell that

...more

When I began reading Empty Chairs by Stacey Danson I was completely unprepared for what I would find. If it were a novel, I would have put it down. The matter-of-fact narration depicting extreme sexual exploitation of a small child by her mother turned my stomach. But Empty Chairs isn't a novel. It is Stacy Danson's life story. I read on through tears; my heart filled with horror, sympathy, and anger. But I read on.

In her superbly written auto-biography, the author unfolds a vision of hell that few can imagine, but is the life of far too many innocent children in our society. Stacy was beaten brutally and repeatedly. She was forced to service a stream of men who paid her mother - not occasionally, but every day. When her mother wasn't pleased with her performance Stacy was locked away in a dark closet where claustrophobia threatened her sanity. Stacy was only three.

Her earliest memories are of abuse. Stacy was only five when her mother sold her virginity to the highest bidder and she was brutally raped. The daily torment continued until Stacy, in an amazing act of defiance, at last said no and ran away. She had only been allowed to attend three years of school, between six and nine years old, and at eleven was alone on the harsh streets of Kings Cross in Sydney, Australia. But Stacy survived.

In her short time attending school she learned to read. Her love of reading, and her hunger for knowledge, has continued for over forty years, as is apparent in her masterful writing. Horrific details of her life are delivered in almost emotionless, matter-of-fact clarity, and her dark humor is equally dead-pan. Yes, I laughed at times, in a very somber way. But without that detachment and humor the story would be too tragic to read.

I am friends with the author on facebook, as I am with many fellow writers. We rarely interact, but I saw a post that her blog was nearing two-hundred followers and she was giving away copies of Empty Chairs once she reached two-hundred. I went to her blog and followed it. I was number two-hundred. She emailed the book and told me it was her auto-biography and might be hard to read. I never imagined. It was the hardest thing I have ever read. I can not possibly understand how hard it was to write.

Though I think this book should be read by every adult on the planet, I must warn you it is a glimpse into hell. Stacy carries the emotional and physical scars, some severe, to this day, but I am amazed she even survived. It is far more unfathomable that she grew into such a strong and beautiful human being, and equally wonderful writer. I am quite honored now to be on her friends list. But as she says, she didn't just survive, she choose to live, and she choose to speak out and shine a light into the dark corners of our world that most of us chose to ignore.

Stacy Danson is the pen name of author Suzannah Burke. You can find her on facebook, her blog Soooz Says Stuff, and on twitter @pursoot. You can also visit the Empty Chairs blog.

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Apr 11, 2013 Tia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: auto-or-biography, child-abuse, homeless, injury

The writing itself was not stellar, but the author never claimed to be a writer, she only claimed she had a story to tell. That story was heart wrenching. As a child the author endured abuse that NO one should ever have to live through, but live through it she did. At eleven she ran away from that abuse and began to live on the streets. My issue with the story was that it didn't have an ending. I am assuming that there is a sequel, BUT it would have been nice if the book stated that, such as......more

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Mar 10, 2011 K.J. Kron rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

My son cried and cried as I tried to rush home. I wanted to run through the stop lights as I cursed myself for not leaving earlier. He was only four months.When I arrived home, my son looked at me teary-eyed as if I were the worst parent in the world – and I felt like it.

Then I read Empty Chair by Stacey Danson.

When I read A Child Called It, I couldn’t believe that the narrator was only the third worst case of abuse in the area. What could be worse, I wondered.

Reading Empty Chairs gave me the a...more

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Feb 24, 2011 Joanne Ellis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first thing I have to say about this book is the remarkable human spirit found in Stacey. Stacey’s courage and extraordinary spirit make this story shine. No eleven year old should ever have had to live through such prolonged child abuse along with the sadness, fear and trauma of life on the street.

At first this story sickened me, not because of content but because I’m a mother. There is more kindness shown by strangers then flesh and blood in this story. I look at my daughter, at five and s...more The first thing I have to say about this book is the remarkable human spirit found in Stacey. Stacey’s courage and extraordinary spirit make this story shine. No eleven year old should ever have had to live through such prolonged child abuse along with the sadness, fear and trauma of life on the street.

At first this story sickened me, not because of content but because I’m a mother. There is more kindness shown by strangers then flesh and blood in this story. I look at my daughter, at five and shudder at the thought of some stranger doing these unspeakable things to my child, any child. To know that a mother, someone who is supposed to nurture and protect, is the one behind the horrendous treatment chills me to the core but again, it is Stacy’s courage, her survival instinct which had her fighting back and me cheering for the strength I don’t feel even as an adult.

Living each day on the streets with Stacy was eye opening and heart wrenching. All I wanted to do as I read through my tears was take this child in my arms and tell her that evil would no longer reside in her life. Her smart mouth, Sassy Girl mouth, brought a small smile to my lips and I felt encouraged by such tenacity and bravery.

And although the ending does hold some answers to how she survives I long to read more to see how this courageous little girl has become the adult she is today. And for this reason I hope Stacy can tell more of her story.

Empty Chairs shows how some people are simply evil and the disgusting individuals that walk free in our world. It also shows the bravery of a young Sassy girl and the kindness that may not counteract all that is malevolent but gives hope that there is good in people. Jamie, Carol, Animal and Mrs MacDowell are the shining lights in this otherwise dark story with the sparkling light of Stacy in the centre.

Not only is this a chilling, heart wrenching story but it is a story delivered with finesse and Stacey’s own unique way of observing life. Her reflections and perceptions of life then and now bring a further depth to this outstanding tale.
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Jan 21, 2013 Lori rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was listed as non fiction- but it could have easily been under the 'horror' category. Holy moly!I felt disturbed after the first book I read pertaining to an abused child, and let me tell you, that was no picnic to read. But what Stacey Danson endured is beyond my comprehension. I was repulsed from nearly the first page but read it all the same. How this woman perservered through the horrors she lived is astonishing, and she was just a child! On her own! I read her sequelto Empty Chairs and...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Lectus rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review is also on my blog http://onlectus.blogspot.com/2012/07/...

This book is not for the faint of heart. I was taken aback since the very third paragraph. I have read a couple of books on this topic but never felt what I felt while reading this book. I was enraged and not sure at whom (Gwen or the perverts?).

If you can stomach reading about a 5-year old girl being abused (from all sides and forms) then by all means read the book. But if the very thought of child molestation infuriates and...more

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May 12, 2012 Trudy rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: meh-not-worth-it

I only got a little over half way done with this book because I just couldn't take it any more. I thought it was going to be a story similar to A Child Called It, but it was much more lame than that. This lady was just talking about her life and it wasn't told in an interesting way to keep me wanting to read more. I read lots of reviews that it was a good book that kept you wanting more, so there is a second book written by this same author and if it's anything like this one it's so not worth it...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Cindy Vine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book reminds you of how cruel we can be to each other, even our own flesh and blood. How a mother could do what Stacey's mother did to her is incomprehensible. It's hard to believe she was eleven years old when she ended up on the streets. When the book ended I was annoyed. I wanted to know more about little Jenny who ended up on the streets at the age of 6, and how Stacey got off the streets and learnt how to read and write. I wanted to know more about how she changed her life around. Luck...more

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Jan 01, 2012 Paige Dearth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Empty Chairs was a well written account of the evil that lurks in the world. I thought Stacey Danson did an excellent job and she kept it real. The book was direct. There is nothing pretty or nice about child abuse. In fact, regardless of the graphicness of this book, no one can really know the true horror and isolation of child abuse unless you've lived through it. Being raped at seven years-old, I understand her struggles and unrelenting determination to overcome her unfortunate and unwanted c...more

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May 20, 2012 Meghan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you can handle the first few chapters, you should definitely try this book. The first parts are horrific accounts of child abuse, but this autobiography is excellent and honest. The author does not dwell on her suffering, though it would have been more than justified, and has such a triumphant and strong spirit. It is thought-provoking to say the least. I heartily believe any adult should have this type of book as required reading...there is far too much cruelty in this world, especially towa...more

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Mar 27, 2011 Stuart Aken rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Empty Chairs, by Stacey Danson, is a remarkable piece of writing. This autobiographical insight into the early life of a girl subject to physical and sexual abuse is honest, frank and characterised by a refusal to hide unpleasant detail. That the abuse was initiated by her mother, who acted as her pimp, when Stacey was the tender age of 3, makes the revelations all the more horrific.
It is natural to expect that an account of this type would be driven by bitterness and revenge but the author man...more Empty Chairs, by Stacey Danson, is a remarkable piece of writing. This autobiographical insight into the early life of a girl subject to physical and sexual abuse is honest, frank and characterised by a refusal to hide unpleasant detail. That the abuse was initiated by her mother, who acted as her pimp, when Stacey was the tender age of 3, makes the revelations all the more horrific.
It is natural to expect that an account of this type would be driven by bitterness and revenge but the author manages to tell her story without undue hostility. And that, in itself, is an amazing feat. If ever a woman had just cause to resent the world into which she was born, Stacey Danson is that woman. But she simply lays out the facts; emotional, physical, mental, spiritual and rational. There are places where the text is almost too hard to read. I have been kept awake nights by some of her descriptions. This is, as you would expect, a difficult book to read. But I urge you to read it simply because it is hard.
The prose style is simple, yet eloquent. She writes pretty much as you would expect her to think and spares none of the expletives that, for her, have been an integral part of her upbringing. There is no attempt to deviate from the truth for effect, no attempt to embroider or exaggerate the facts. The simple truth is enough here, and Stacey has recognised that and allowed integrity to describe her experiences.
I am, by nature, an optimist and a lover of women in general. The experience of this book has caused me to question some of my beliefs about people more than any other work I’ve read; and I include such classics as All Quiet on the Western Front and A Town Like Alice as examples of man’s inhumanity in this comparison.
Men and women, authorities and victims, the respected and the reviled, all feature in this book as adults. And all are shown as flawed, many of them seriously so. There are those who simply looked the other way and thus allowed the terrible abuse to continue. There are those who worked in trusted occupations and yet tormented and harmed the vulnerable child they should have been protecting. There are those who exploited, or wished to exploit, a girl who so distrusted people that even those who might have been her friends could not win her trust. And, in the end, it was the children, the other victims, who rescued her from what might otherwise have been a violent and untimely death.
There is no sentimentality, no attempt to rouse the reader’s pity, in the words on these pages. What you get is the simple truth of a life damaged and abused. Yet, through it all, the spirit of the writer rises and grows to become aware of the greater world and, as the book ends, to begin to wonder if there are, after all, some good people in the world, after all.
Stacey wrote this account to alert the world to the reality of child abuse; to tell those complacent souls who blind themselves to facts, by blaming victims, that sometimes children have no choice; to educate those in authority about the reality of life on the streets for the abused. But she has achieved something more than that. She has made a work of such integrity that the reader emerges from the experience both wiser and more compassionate. And she has earned the unbounded admiration of this reader for telling it exactly as it is.
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Mar 24, 2012 Brenda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own-read

What an unbelievable book, an unbelievable tale of horror, and absolutely nothing a little girl (or anyone) should suffer at the hands of her mother, no less!

The years that Stacey endured will be forever etched on her mind, and the fact that she managed to escape the horror at age 11 is a credit to her. But the streets of Sydney weren't a lot better; she was 'free' but she had no money, she could trust no-one, she ate very little, slept very little, as she had to keep her guard up all the time....more

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Apr 12, 2012 Katie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a haunting true story of unimaginable terror and heartbreak. I caution anyone reading this to prepare yourself for this painful and utterly henious child abuse story. The author is so incredibly courageous for writing this all down. This story takes place in Australia back in the 60's when people turned a cheek on the problems of others and child abuse was a private family matter not one for the public to judge or deal with. I felt angry, sad and even cried during parts of this book.

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Aug 13, 2011 Polly Pottridge rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow, this story is very hard to read in a it is so real to life and we just wish the world was different sort of way kind of hard. She tells her story very well,it grips the reader and draws you into her story. I did however not like the aburt ending, while i relize it had to stop at some point it was just a very cold spot. I was not looking for an happy ever after moment but a closer to how things pulled her out of that world, just a few words after the story would have helped. This is not for...more

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Jun 26, 2011 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I would have given this five stars had it not been for the ending or should I say non-ending. I read this on my kindle app and kept trying to turn the page for the next chapter because I didn't realize it was over. I then thought that the whole book had not been downloaded and was dismayed when I figured out that was the ending and that the author had not written another book to continue the story. I was left very unsatisfied because I wanted to know how the rest of the author's story played out...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Karina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I do not know how I ended up reading this book. I wish I had never started it, because to put it down would be wrong. I felt I owed it to Stacey Danson to live her horror from the sidelines at least. This book will suck you in chew you up and spit you out.
Much as the book SLEEPERS held my attention with the horrors that adults can inflict on children. I didn't know whether to throw it or wrap it up safely.

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Mar 19, 2012 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't know where to start, from the moment I began reading this book I felt physically sick at the disgusting abuse this woman was subjected to from an early age, I felt so many emotions throughout.

Anger at those who harmed her, happiness that she survived everything she went through, I found myself wanting to give comfort to a stranger who had inspired me with her story of astounding abuse and devastation, more importantly Survival.

This was an amazing book, albeit dark an powerfully emotiona...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Kathy Barton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a very sad accounting of abuse of a child. The first part of the book was heartbreaking....Then when she turned 11 she left her home and went to live on the street and the rest of the book was very weighted down by her life there. I did not really connect or see the point of the rest of the book - I was hoping that she was going to be found and saved or something. She ends up hooking up with a bunch of other runaways and they live as a pack or gang.

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Mar 26, 2012 Jeremy Potter rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The author is not much of a writer, by her own admission, but her story is incredible. The emotional, physical, and sexual abuse she endured are hard to imagine, and uncomfortable to read about. Her resolve, resilience, and resourcefulness are both fascinating and inspirational. I can't say that I would recommend this book, but I can say that I found it riveting and difficult to put down.

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Aug 07, 2011 L.M. Stull rated it 3 of 5 stars

Empty chairs was a tragic story, but one that indeed needed to be told. I was appalled at the things this child had to go through. Stacey's determination and resilience was remarkable. I don't know if I would have been so tough if I had been in her shoes.

My only complaint with the book is just as we were learning about Stacey's journey, the book ended. I would have liked to have learned a little bit more about her life.

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Jun 16, 2011 Dmareen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

I started this yesterday and don't usually like books of such graphic storylines but can't put it down.
It is beautifully written and very sad at times but gives you a real insight to what it is like to suffer
horrific child abuse and then live on the streets of Sydney back in the 1960's as and 11 year old girl.
What this girl goes through is beyond words.

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Dec 29, 2011 Verona rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Imagine, a young spirit so full of fight, strength and remarkable resilience?! This is what one finds amongst the pages of Empty Chairs, a book littered with unspeakable acts against a young innocent child. I sat and read this book in an afternoon and as I turned to the last page I simply couldn't help but ask...what next Stacey?

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Jul 25, 2012 Eden Baylee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Abused from the age of three and forced to live on the streets by the time she was eleven, this memoir chronicles the life of Stacey Danson who has survived atrocities that few of us could ever imagine.

It took real courage to write this book. As with life, endings can be unpredictable. I look forward to the continuing story.

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Oct 14, 2012 richwire rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Really painful story but compelling. Told in such detail it made me feel like I was there. I wish I could have been there to intervene. I couldn't wait to finish this one and read the 2nd book to find out what happened to Sassy. Very sorry for what happened to her. I admire her toughness and perseverance.

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May 16, 2012 Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book was excellent, It is so sad that anybody would have to live like that especially a young child. I read it in 2 days. At the end I found my self trying to turn the pages on my kindle and thinking there was something wrong with it when in fact the book just ended. I sure hope there is a sequel to it.

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