Wayne: An Abused Child's Story of Courage, Survival, and Hope Book

When I saw that Sally Jessy Raphael had endorsed this book, and that the Theodore children had appeared on her show, I wasn't expecting too much. I feel that shows like that are exploitative "abuse porn" for the audience. So I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this book. Credit to Theodore's co-author for being able to parse out the chapters so there was some narrative tension as Wayne uncovers family secrets. There was one typo that slipped past them, heroin spell "heroine" that made me wince, but that happened late in the book. The chapters are very short, so it acts as a catalyst to draw you into reading just one more chapter before you put the book down then before you know you're nearly done. A flaw I thought, was the lack of his siblings' perspectives -- we know nothing of how their lives turned out, especially his sisters. Drug abuse? Bad marriages? Children born? Successes? Higher Education? Careers? We don't get any indication on the wider affects of his parents' abuse an neglect.

This wasn't as exhaustively researched or as intellectual as other book on similar topics that I've read, I think it will appeal to the same folks who read "A Child Called It."

Also kudos that Wayne didn't find religion at the end which made everything all right, and grant forgiveness to his father (as has happened in other books I've read on this topic.) When I was reading the opening scene of the Sylvia Likens-level abuse he suffered, I thought "he better not end up forgiving this guy."