First published 2023
Rachel Louise Snyder loses her mother at eight years old. Her grieving father moves the family across the country into a strict evangelical community that operates like a cult. Snyder rebels against this controlled existence and gets kicked out of school, then thrown out of her home entirely. She lives in her car and depends on the kindness of strangers to survive. She pretends to be older than she is and convinces a college to admit her. Later she travels around the world as a journalist, interviewing survivors of violence in India, Tibet, and Niger. She spends six years living in Cambodia, watching the country confront its brutal past. Throughout her career reporting on abuse that happens behind closed doors, Snyder keeps her own family's story private. This memoir connects her personal journey of survival with her professional mission to document violence against women globally.
Genres: memoir, non-fiction, biography-memoir, journalism
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, personal-journey
Setting: India, Tibet, Niger, Cambodia
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
272 pages · Paperback · Scribe UK
Content warnings: abuse, violence