A Child Called "It" Review

I read page after page of horrific abuse because the cover promised the story was "inspirational".  The only thing I was inspired to do was get my money back.  Tacking a couple pages of happy ending on a snuff book doesn't equal inspiration.  Yes, it's wonderful that he survived and overcame.  That doesn't mean his book is in any way inspirational, just that he is.  I mean, "Faces of Death" doesn't become inspirational if you add a scene of a cow escaping the slaughterhouse either.

 Not only does this book not live up to it's promises of inspiration it's poorly written.  We're told that it's written from a child's point-of-view but that's hardly the case.  It's more likely that disclaimer was added so we'd excuse the awful writing.  The author is to be commended for telling his story, but that doesn't mean he's a writer.  If he really cared about reaching people he would have done it properly rather than slapping some words on a page and calling it good enough.

 In the end we're left with a million questions and no answers.  There are subsequent volumes to this story, but this book is so short it feels like we're being milked for the money rather than being treated to a rich story that needs multiple volumes to do it justice.  In other words, the whole thing would have made one reasonable book.  Instead the author decided to stretch it out so we'd have to shell out more money to try to make sense of his tale.  We're given the "who", "what" and "where" but he leaves out the "why".  And when you're trying to connect with an audience and make them care the "why" is the most important bit.

 Save your money!