I found this book wandering through Chapters. (usual event) I usually don't read about child abuse but this book pulled me in just from reading the back of the book. Her abuse began at the age of 6 and didn't stop until she got pregant by her father. Toni searches for help from her distant mother and get's nothing. Family turns her away. The locals in the town believe because the abuse went on she wanted it and liked it. She had nobody to turn to.I know alot of things have changed on the views of child abuse but this story bothered me so much because Toni's mother does nothing and my view of the story is that her mother just left her to her father knowing what was happening. I can't wrap my head around it. And what's even worse is that Toni's mother believes SHE is the victim in all this. I don't know who I dispised more...Toni's father for the abuse he inflicted on a young, defenseless child or the mother who let it continue. I also can't imagine sitting at the bedside of this woman as she's dying from cancer. I'm assuming she was hoping for some sort of confession of her feelings of what went on but this woman was so selfish I'm sure it didn't even cross her mind.I did a little research on the author today and she has not only written a follow up book to Don't Tell Mummy called When Daddy Comes Home but she has started to ...ghost write for other survivors of child abuse and bring their stories out and try to start the healing process.This book my be upsetting for people to read but I think it's important to read. I'm looking to get the follow up book by Toni "When Daddy Comes Home" but it seems I can't purchase it through Chapters. It's currently only available on ebooks.
This book for me was a real eye opener not only does it make you appreciate growing up with a normal background and having loving parents and a wonderful childhood but it shows you that there are sick and twisted people in the world who will manipulate young people to feel superior. the shocking truth of this book is somewhat scaring but the way it is written you can hear the shouts feel the pain and understand the emotions going through the young Antoinette’s head and that of the older Toni. I am only thirteen so when I read this a lot of it i can relate to by that I mean being afraid of change, mistaking people for who they are not but wanting so badly for them to be who you imagine in your head. Not wanting to face the truth as it hurts too much.This book is a great contribution to how modern day life can be so evilly twisted and screwed up with harsh intent.on a finishing note of what I learnt from this book and what I will always remember I will say thisNot every book is a fairytale and not every story has a happy ending.
une autobiographie des plus bouleversantes.. Une mère qui a vécu dans le déni, un enfant qui en a payer le prix. ce bouquin m'a fait pleurer de rage, et je trouve dure de lui attribuer la moindre étoile. Quoi de plus triste que les paroles d'un enfant dont les moindre besoin on été ignoré par la personne la plus aimé ! la tragédie que Toni a du vivre a été complètement ignoré par sa mère, comme si le fait de ne pas verbalisé ce qui se passer, lui ôterait tout relation avec la vérité, non mais dans quel monde est ce que nous vivons! non seulement Toni n'a pas été soutenu, elle a en plus été jugé responsable de ce qui lui arrivé, jusqu'à ce qu'elle aie finie par se voir à travers les yeux de ses accusateurs. Le fait d'avoir écrit ce bouquin montre que Toni est devenue une femme forte et déterminé, une femme admirable.
—Hager
Reading this book was really hard for me cause it displayed the horrors Toni was exposed to at the hands of her father at the minor age of 6. We trust our parents and look up to them for guidance and support when we are growing up but what her father did to her was beyond gruesome and having her mother turn her back on her when she needed her most was a low down dirty shame. What kind of mother does that to her own child? Its truly tragic cause in most cases of abuse, the mother always knows what is happening but chooses to protect her husband / boyfriend for the sake of keeping him in her life but at what cost? The girl child needs to be protected from the hands of such monsters. My heart shattered into a million pieces when her community and family shunned her and turned their backs on her. No one deserves to be treated in such an inhumane manner. Toni will never be able to bear children of her own and the ultimate betrayal was the fact that her mother was so prideful she held on till the very end and never had it in her heart to ask for her daughter's forgiveness.
—Cassie Stoddart
As the many of these abuse books I have read this one really made me angry. How can a mother who seem to love her child so much in the begining just seem to ignor and then hate the child for something a grown man did. This poor women had a horrible childhood not only did her father repeatedly rape her but then to get her pregnant and they just abort and some how blame this chilf for all of it. I want to know why this was exceptible to the fathers family, why they forgave him but shunned the chil
—Love
