The first book in a triology by Dave Pelzer, A Child Called It describes the hardships and abuse the child ( apparently the author himself ) encountered in his youth. His life seemed perfect until suddenly, his mother began to abuse him in awful ways that made my jaw hit the floor. This novel describes what may be happening to a child right this second somewhere in the world. Hell.

The first star this book receives was for giving abused children some kind of voice. It makes people aware of such problems, and encourages some action to be taken whenever they encounter a child that might be having a horrific time at home.

The second star is for, well, vivid imagination. I am sure as hell the author exaggerated the abuse for effect, and the fact that he had enough to dream up something like this is disturbing and fairly hard to do. For effort.

The third is for the added information after the book. Not the plot ( what plot ), not the writing style. The emergency phone numbers in the back of the book deserve one whole another star. I suppose.

Now for the cons. The writing style seemed very choppy to me. The book seemed more like a collection of little situations of abuse rather than a real novel. It was like the author wrote down the ideas as they came into his head without bothering to check if it would flow with the rest of the novel.

He never describes his mother. He claims he cannot remember her, but the fact that he remembers the abuse so clearly and not the abuser strikes me as a little odd. Well, screw that. Why is he the only one abused? Why are his brothers treated fairly while he is treated like hell-knows-what? Also, the fact that his mother just, one day, turned cold and unforgiving does not sound realistic. Where did the abusive side come from?

It is powerful. Somewhat inspirational. Yet with the whole controversy surrounding the novel, there is much debate on whether it is a real account or a fictional story.