First published 2003
Twelve-year-old Augusten Burroughs is suddenly uprooted from his mother's care and forced to live with her psychiatrist, a Santa-like lunatic surrounded by his equally eccentric family. In the dilapidated Victorian, there are no rules, no school, and plenty of Valium. Augusten navigates this surreal new world, where a pedophile lives in the backyard shed and an electroshock therapy machine lurks under the stairs. Faced with the chaos and squalor of his new life, Augusten must find a way to survive and make sense of his mother's decision to give him away.
Genres: abuse, 20th-century, coming-of-age, 21st-century, adoption, family-drama
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Amherst, Amherst (Mass.), Massachusetts
Period: 20th century, 21st century
336 pages · Paperback · Picador
Content warnings: child-abuse, mental-illness, pedophilia