First published 2004
David Pelzer was eight years old when his mother, a devoted Christian, began severely abusing him. Beaten, starved, and forced to sleep in the family's basement, David endured years of horrific torment. Trapped in a living nightmare, he must find the strength to survive and escape his mother's twisted grip. A poignant true story of one child's resilience in the face of unimaginable adversity.
Genres: christian-fiction, abuse, autobiography, biography-memoir
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: overcoming-adversity, survival
Setting: California
240 pages · Paperback · Plume
Content warnings: child-abuse, emotional-abuse, physical-abuse