Book forty: A Piece of Cake by Cupcake Brown

This book is the true story of Cupcake Brown's life. On the one hand I can appreciate the honesty Brown displays in retelling it, every last horrible moment of it. On the other, it was far too lengthy for my taste. The beginning was appalling. At the age of 11 Cupcake's mother unexpectedly dies. Cupcake is then taken from the only father she ever knew - her mother's ex-husband who has cared for and continued to pay child support to both Cupcake and her brother - and placed by her biological father, whom she had never met, into foster care where she suffers abuses too numerous to count. It appears her biological father only showed up because he was seeking financial benefits Brown was entitled to. Her life really spirals out of control once she finds drugs and alcohol. (This is the section that I really labored to get through.) Rock bottom finally comes when Brown wakes to find she's been living behind a dumpster for four days. I imagine this is a pretty accurate description, or as accurate as it can be when the person writing about it has spent much of her life in a drug and alcohol-induced stupor, of what it is like to be addicted to drugs and alcohol and lose all sense of right and wrong.

26 down, plus 14.