Emerging W.A. Author
A. R. Levett
  • News
  • About
    • Qualifications
    • Awards
    • Publications
  • Poems
    • The Split
    • The Outsider
    • Burden
    • Feeding Time
    • Paternal Lessons
    • From Womb to Tomb
    • Blank Page
    • Flight of the Cabbage White
    • Recoil
    • haiga
    • The Manipulator
    • Silent Thief
    • Laboro
  • Short Stories
    • The Visit
    • Big Bad [sample]
    • The Loquat
    • The Family Pet
  • Story Mentoring
  • Workshops
    • How to Become a Successful Author
    • Developing a Potent Story Premise
    • Charting the Hero's Journey
    • Mastering the Art of Story Critiquing
    • Crash Course in the Craft of Writing
  • Courses
    • Mapping Your Story
    • Artistic Recovery

Book Review: 'In My Skin' by Kate Holden

8/3/2016

0 Comments

 
Kate Holden’s In My Skin (2007) is a vivid and very engaging memoir about heroin addiction, prostitution, and one young woman’s drive to survive.

Growing up as part of an intellectual family, Holden seems to have everything she wants – supportive parents, a good job, great friends, and an arts degree. Like her peers, she dabbles with alcohol and marijuana, but it’s not until she convinces her then boyfriend to let her try heroin one night that she begins a chain reaction of events that lead to heroin dependency, which in turn creates ongoing issues with family and friends, the loss of her job, and, eventually, a life of prostitution.

Holden’s memoir portrays these experiences in vivid detail, drawing the reader in with a captivating narrator’s voice, carefully nuanced prose, and, importantly, sensitive and honest humility. Her story is so involving that, at times, readers feel like they are the drug addict in need of a fix, that they are struggling to survive on the low income of a street urchin and prostitute. Moreover, readers will continually find themselves shaking their heads as Holden  continues to dig herself deeper and undertake more humiliating acts to feed her dependency. Yet, they are never enough to turn readers away from caring about her during her struggles.

In parts, some of the details, especially in relation to her prostitution, are excessive and slow the pace. However, they give a good insight into the author’s state of mind at the time and portray the horrifying reality of what some people will do to survive.

In My Skin is an authentic, well written, highly engaging, and hard to put down memoir that takes readers on the author’s emotional journey, and reveals how even the best of us can succumb to a life we are less deserving of. I highly recommended it.

4 stars.
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    November 2018
    September 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

    Categories

    All
    Awards
    Book Reviews
    Competition
    Event Reviews
    Film Reviews
    Game Reviews
    General
    Music Review
    Musings
    News
    Publications
    TV Series Review
    Upcoming Events
    WA Writing Community
    Workshop
    Writing Advice

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.