First of all, a huge thank you to BookishFirst and Celadon Books for providing me with this advanced copy of Hollywood Park. Sadly, due to COVID and other life factors, I only recently got to read it, but man was it a doozy. I don't normally drift towards memoirs but I'm so glad I was given the opportunity to read this!
4.5 stars. This book just tore me up inside and my heart was breaking within the first few pages. This was just such a powerful, heartbreaking, beautifully-written memoir about the author Mikel Jollet's life from birth within the Synanon cult, to his escape with his mother and brother, having to learn about the world in the real world, and leading up to his struggle to become a writer and musician in his adult years.
While I can understand how difficult it was for him to write the story that his did, I would have been interested to learn more about his time in the actual cult, though he may have been so young and traumatized, it just wasn't feasible to recall much more than he did.
4.5 stars. This book just tore me up inside and my heart was breaking within the first few pages. This was just such a powerful, heartbreaking, beautifully-written memoir about the author Mikel Jollet's life from birth within the Synanon cult, to his escape with his mother and brother, having to learn about the world in the real world, and leading up to his struggle to become a writer and musician in his adult years.
While I can understand how difficult it was for him to write the story that his did, I would have been interested to learn more about his time in the actual cult, though he may have been so young and traumatized, it just wasn't feasible to recall much more than he did.