Structure

For the most part, the book’s structure is chronological. Beginning with Chapter 1, the author chronicles her life and experiences in the order in which they happened, starting when she was five years old in 1985 and continuing to the 2010’s. There are no divisions into parts or sections, as the author’s narrative unfolding in twenty-two individual, and individually titled, chapters. This structural choice, takes the reader along the author’s journey as she recalls and examines it, and can therefore be seen as evoking the book’s subtitle, “The Journey from Hopelessness to Healing.”

Within each chapter, there is a roughly similar format. First, there is an image, a statement of circumstances, or a portrait of an event. This is followed by an explanation of how that image or circumstance or event came to be, which is then followed by excavation of understanding and insight that...