Helpful Score: 5
An amazing story told by a woman who has gone through the wringer and then come back to tell the tale. She describes living through every hideously bad experience I can imagine, and then (along with the grace of God and some amazing friends that see something in her worth saving) she works her butt off and she makes her long-forgotten childhood dreams come true.
Helpful Score: 4
This is an amazing story of a woman who became a respected attorney after life in foster care, gangs and as a multi-drug addict. Inspiring and fascinating. Recommended!
Helpful Score: 3
I thought this book had a lot to offer, but would be more easily understood if a person has struggled with addictions themselves. I found myself saying "Just say NO lady, don't smoke that crack today!" I've never been there, so had a hard time believing some of the things she did to stay high. I can't say I blame her, she really did get a bum rush from people and the government when she was a young child. It's amazing that she fought her way to the top, and her story tells you how hard it was.
Helpful Score: 3
This is a funny, yet touching story of a woman's triumph over drugs, alcohol, and the foster system to become a strong, successful woman. It was a little bit of a simple book, but it held my attention and made me care about the character.
Helpful Score: 2
This is by far my all time favorite book! Cupcake is an absolutely beautiful women who managed to come out on top and beat all odds. A true survivor in the face of real tragedy. You will not want to put this down.
Helpful Score: 2
An emotional "in your face" memoir on surviving the worst life has to offer. From losing her mother at 11, to being torn from the only family she knows, abusive foster homes, life on the streets, drugs, alcohol, bad relationships, gang involvement and violence. Cupcake has survived it all. Through a strong spirit she perserved and pushed herself through college and law school. A difficult road for most with just one of the devasting life consequences. This girl has managed to come out on the top of the heap and live to write about. A very inspiring autobiography.
Be warned though.. this book is peppered with very careful language, drug language and adult situations.
Be warned though.. this book is peppered with very careful language, drug language and adult situations.
Helpful Score: 2
Very inspiring story.
Helpful Score: 2
Although this book covered so many sad topics, it was such an uplifting book in so many ways. It's so cool to see how God puts people in our lives at just the right time and they say just the right thing. I admire the author's courage to share the whole, raw truth about her life - even when the truth was really ugly. I'll have to share this one with friends before I pass it on - it was that good.
Helpful Score: 2
Good, juicy, down and dirty book: Couldn't put it down. Can't be someone who doesn't like cursing!
Helpful Score: 2
An amazing memoir you can't put down.
Helpful Score: 1
I thought Cupcake Brown's story was pretty fascinating. I couldn't put it down. I like memoirs and this one definitely felt very real and it was easy to kind of "get into her head" and it sucked me in from the beginning.
But overall, I agree with others who do not believe this is all a "true story". SO many things about it bugged me! I felt like it could have been 200 pages shorter and still been exactly the same book. The endless descriptions of drug use didn't impact me. There's a (fiction) novel by Luke Davies called 'Candy: A Novel of Love & Addiction' (later made into a movie with Heath Ledger & Abbie Cornish) that just brought the drug lifestyle to life in a way that this book didn't at all. It was hard for me to really feel the desperation or get the impact of her drug problems during much of the book. I felt very confused at times and the events of her story were not always clear (in my opinion).
The biggest issue for me as a reader was having such a difficult time just accepting all of the stuff she did (crime and violence)...it seemed like she was so blase about it and that really bothered me! I think I'm usually pretty understanding of peoples' antisocial behavior when I read books of this type, and I know abuse can do crazy things to a person, but I just got this vibe that she was an incredibly dangerous & angry person...even at the end, I just didn't get a real feeling that Cupcake was truly remorseful for ANY of the wrongs she'd done!
To me (probably because I couldn't relate to her recovery or her faith) the last 1/4 of the book was just a neverending string of cliches. I was so happy that she was finding a happier life and getting healthy, but every other paragraph was just cringeworthy for me. I'd recommend this to a person who doesn't mind reading a lot of "filthy" stuff but also believes in God.
But overall, I agree with others who do not believe this is all a "true story". SO many things about it bugged me! I felt like it could have been 200 pages shorter and still been exactly the same book. The endless descriptions of drug use didn't impact me. There's a (fiction) novel by Luke Davies called 'Candy: A Novel of Love & Addiction' (later made into a movie with Heath Ledger & Abbie Cornish) that just brought the drug lifestyle to life in a way that this book didn't at all. It was hard for me to really feel the desperation or get the impact of her drug problems during much of the book. I felt very confused at times and the events of her story were not always clear (in my opinion).
The biggest issue for me as a reader was having such a difficult time just accepting all of the stuff she did (crime and violence)...it seemed like she was so blase about it and that really bothered me! I think I'm usually pretty understanding of peoples' antisocial behavior when I read books of this type, and I know abuse can do crazy things to a person, but I just got this vibe that she was an incredibly dangerous & angry person...even at the end, I just didn't get a real feeling that Cupcake was truly remorseful for ANY of the wrongs she'd done!
To me (probably because I couldn't relate to her recovery or her faith) the last 1/4 of the book was just a neverending string of cliches. I was so happy that she was finding a happier life and getting healthy, but every other paragraph was just cringeworthy for me. I'd recommend this to a person who doesn't mind reading a lot of "filthy" stuff but also believes in God.
Helpful Score: 1
This book was a page-turner for me. I couldn't wait to finish it because it was packed with so many curves and turns that you'd wonder how this woman actually made it through.
It was hard to believe that this was a true story.
It was hard to believe that this was a true story.
Helpful Score: 1
GREAT BOOK! As someone who knows enough about drug addiction and recovery to make a statement I definitely recommend this book. Unlike a lot of other drug and alcohol recovery books (this is not "just" one of those by the way) like for example A Million Little Pieces by Frey this is an honest account. Everything this woman went through (in terms of her addiction) has been gone through by countless others and she really has a way with words. This book reminded me of numerou life lessons that I've let slip from my mind over the years and how important it is to keep fighting. It's unreal how her early life was though, with the courts and police, and running away you'd think someone would have stepped in somewhere. She totally turned her life around and is now helping others- I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in any of the above or just plain memoir fans. I'd keep it if my bookshelves weren't so darn full! :)
Helpful Score: 1
I read this a couple of years ago and it was well worth my time. I really enjoyed the story and it kept me wanting to read.
Helpful Score: 1
AWESOME!!!!!!!
Helpful Score: 1
If you like memoirs (or even if you don't) READ this one!! It will stay with you and blow your socks off. It inspires you to be a better person. You won't be able to put it down. Read it!
Helpful Score: 1
I really wanted to like this book, but I found too many inconsistencies. I do not totally believe her story. I think it started with the facts and then a lot of it was embellished. After reading I googled her and found that others shared my opinion. In fact she was compared to James Frey (A Million Little Pieces). I am very disappointed.
Helpful Score: 1
This is an excellent book. It was hard to put the book down. It held my attention all the way to the end.
I found this book to be very interesting. It is about the life of a young lady known to people as "Cupcake Brown." The book is about the things she had to endure while growing up.
Roller coaster. Many sad situations for a young woman that breaks your heart, but so inspiring. I didn't want it to end. This was the best book I read in 2010. Buy the book NOW!
Great book...incredible story of a girl who had a life that most of us couldn't even imagine. I really enjoyed reading this book and finished it in one day.
Very good! So inspirational
I heard of this book through a friend. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. Cupcake's story is one of true endurance. Its almost unbelievable that she even made it out of the nightmare that became her life. The brutal honesty with which she wrote was compelling and made me feel like I knew her personally. Great memoir. Loved it.
The book was not bad overall but I have a hard time believing that someone who was so heavily drugged would be able to remember so many details of her past. She goes on about not remembering anything about the previous night when she woke up, but she just wrote a chapter on going out what they did and getting high or drunk. If she wakes up with no recollection of the night how did she write such a detailed account of the period leading up to it?!?!? It makes you feel sorry for her in the beginning but by the middle of the book I was blaming her and her friends for the reason things are the way they are. She tells of selling her rented furniture, using aliases for store credit cards which got maxed and never paid, stealing from everyone. Perfect example of where the stereotype comes from. You go from sympathy in the beginning to wishing she would just O.D. or get killed just to end the drain on society. Very long book. Not something I would recommend but not a horrible book, either.
Loved this book! Cupcake shares things about her life that you would hope would never happen to anybody. Couldn't put it down.
Heartwrenching and hopeful; it was a tough read and quite thought-provoking. It had a positive outcome but it didn't come easy!
This is one of the best books i have ever read on drug addiction and recovery. It was excellent! I must read. She really draws you into the story emotionally. I couldnt put it down!
Gripping tale
