HELL IF WE DON’T CHANGE OUR WAYS
by Brittany Means
An ode to the power of the human spirit and the written word to combat the most harrowing of childhood memories.
Brittany Means’s childhood was filled with abuse, neglect, violence, and instability, in part caused by her and her mother’s nomadic existence. Poverty, sexual assault, and evangelical Christian culture didn’t help.
Spending her childhood riding shotgun as her mother struggled to escape abusive relationships, Brittany’s life was a blur of highways and traumas that collapsed any effort to track time. With no money and only burned bridges behind her, Brittany took care of her younger brother, managed the instability of her home life, and attempted to make sense of the troublesome world around her.
Available Everywhere October 3, 2023
Why Zibby Loves It…
I read this entire book in one sitting, only pausing to cover my eyes and regroup a few times when Brittany’s experiences overwhelmed me. But, as she points out in the text, she doesn’t get to close her eyes.
Brittany is a dazzling literary talent. Her ability to withstand the most difficult childhood was one thing. But to spin it into narrative gold is quite another. If she never got out of bed again, I would understand. Instead, she has delved deep into memory and trauma to make sense of the past, writing about it an original, breath-taking, emotional way that stayed with me — and always will.
Inspiring, fresh, original, and beyond powerful, this memoir deserves to win every prize imaginable. The real prize is her own survival.
