Mummy Doesn't Love You

by Alexander Sinclair

As a young boy, Alexander Sinclair was the target of his mother's irrational hatred. She stopped at no lengths in her campaign to tear him to pieces both mentally and physically. In his chilling memoir, Alex describes how he received the most unnecessary and appalling treatment in mental institutions because of her actions, to the point where his mental and physical health deteriorated to a perilous state. Covering her tracks with cunning deception, his mother began by beating him repeatedly and forcing him to take a dangerous mix of amphetamines and Valium. His health already in balance, and raped by an uncle, the professionals believed his mother's lies. Mental asylums in Greece and the UK followed, as did isolation cells and ECT. But his mother's hatred was to take a more sinister turn still - how much more could Alex take and still survive? Not since Sickened has there been a book that catalogues a child's experience of being made devastatingly ill at the hands of their mother. Dramatic and uniquely shocking, this is a memoir that will haunt the reader long after they close the final page.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2009

Reviews

[Mai Shine · Rating 5 out of 5]

ေကာင္းခ်က္ကြယ္ စိတ္ဝင္စားစရာေကာင္းလြန္းတာ တစ္ထိုင္ထဲ အျပီးဖတ္ ျဖစ္သြားတယ္။
အမတစ္ေယာက္ရဲ႕ ဘေလာ့ကိုုသာ မဖတ္ဖူးဘူးဆိုုရင္ ဒီလုုိ အေမမ်ိဳးရွိတယ္လုုိ႕ေတာင္ ယံုုမိမယ္ မထင္ဘူး။

[litwithneha ( Neha Modi ) · Rating 5 out of 5]

#bookhoarderreviews
This book is a raw, haunting memoir of the author’s traumatic childhood, shaped by a mother who seemed determined to destroy him. From an early age, the author faced relentless emotional and physical abuse, all stemming from his mother’s deep-seated hatred. A minor physical ailment became an excuse for her to manipulate, control, and isolate him, breaking down his ability to lead a normal, healthy life.

The story spans from when the author was just six years old until his teenage years, during which his home became a prison. His mother’s abuse was unending, and his father’s helplessness left him without support. Even his younger sister and maternal relatives joined in the mistreatment, leaving him utterly isolated. Over these seven painful years, he endures traumatic encounters with mental institutions, grieves the loss of both a friend and a pet, and faces wrongful accusations from his mother, including the horrifying claim that he wanted to harm his youngest sibling.

The memoir’s intensity immerses readers in the author’s suffering, inspiring both empathy and gratitude for our own lives. It underscores a powerful truth: motherhood cannot be forced or socially imposed; it must be a conscious, willing choice made with emotional readiness.

This was a challenging read for me. I had to pause countless times, overwhelmed by anger toward the mother and deep sympathy for the child. I often felt an urge to shake the father, to make him recognize the anguish his child was enduring.

Though it is an emotionally heavy book, I believe it’s an essential read. The author’s courage in sharing his story reminds us of the resilience of the human spirit and the importance of empathy, support, and awareness for those who may be suffering in silence.

[Laxmi]

The author is a person who was subject to much abuse, physical as well as mental, as a child, majorly by his mother and later by some of the staff when he was made to live in some institutions (for the mentally unstable) by his mother.
This biography focuses on the author's life from around age 4 to age 15 in detail and speaks of the kind of as well as intensity of abuse his mother subject him to resulting in some really difficult situations and long-lasting impacts for him.
While there is quite some pain he was put through, the narrative provides quite a few details which do not seem convincing to be true as a kid might not be able to understand the gravity of the situation at the age they are being mentioned at (in quite a few instances). Also, the author's memory was affected due to certain incidents, so it is becomes all the more unclear how these many details could be clearly remembered to be produced in the form of a book, as only in some instances the author mentions inputs from others.
Furthermore, the narrative rests heavily on self-pity, which is mostly due to the nature of the storyline, however, it is being overemphasized, which might not work well for all readers.

[Clare Burnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly heartbreaking story what he went through Mother’s are supposed to protect children, so glad he came through the other side

[Annnmarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking but loved reading it

[Euodias · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this when I was 11. Read it again as an adult and I still love it! It’s a total emotional rollercoaster ride.

[Nicola Robson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very difficult read. Dont understand how any mother can treat a child like that.
Such a brave boy.

[Xanan Ahmed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soo Amazing

[Kay Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

very sad

[Chloé Berho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hyper touchant

[~ laura ~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hope that’s the most disturbing story of a childhood I ever read. 💔

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

this story was the most disgusting I had ever read. Normally you pick up one of these books and you expect violence and/or sexual abuse. The fact she came back to lie... just made me have a strong hate for people. Very emotive. What courage this little boy had... and to come out the other side! amazing!

[Nuzhat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really distressing case of mental and physical abuse. I didn't want to continue reading at times due to the shocking nature but it's nice to see the author has been able to find happiness in his life. I'm really disappointed at his father's lack of authority during this whole ordeal. A lot could have been prevented if he had been more alert and supportive.

[jajarbooks 📖]

que dire ? ce livre a été très dur à lire, il ma brisé le coeur. je ne comprends pas comment on peut faire ça à son propre enfant, fin comment on peut faire ça tout court. Alex a été très courageux, il m’impressionne et tout au long de ma lecture j’avais envie de le prendre dans mes bras. je suis heureuse qu’il ait réussi à refaire sa vie malgré tout ça et qu’il aille mieux

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has got to be one of the most shocking cases of abuse I have ever read about. Alexander must have had such strength to get through what happened to him.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A harsh read, but very interesting. It gave more understanding about mental illness and how other peoples actions can be capable of destroying anothers mental health.

[Val Box · Rating 5 out of 5]

A heart breaking story of a boy whose Mother was hideous to him. I don't think I could bear to read any more books like this, but i'm glad I read this one.

[Lois White · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing.

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I pity that boy.I think he is a strong man.Everyone should read this.

[Gemma Selby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, really got into the story and wanted to read more.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very powerful and harrowing read, it does give you an insight on how people deal with mental illness, this poor boy was not only abused by his mother but let down badly by his father, how he managed to make peace with them I will never know, I'm glad he has managed a stable happy life which neither his parents deserved