Black Sheep Rising by Donna Theresa starts with her birth in 1961 during a blizzard. She is named after her father’s mistress and enters the world already labeled as the Black Sheep. Her mother, Ann, never lets her forget it. The memoir documents her turbulent childhood in Plainfield, New Jersey, where she hides behind the bed with brothers Guy and Joel, spinning stories to survive the “fighting house.” It follows her through nine hard years in Catonsville, Maryland, where books become her escape. A stepfather called "Funny Sunny" betrays her trust, and her own mother cheers for the other girl in a fight she organizes herself. Adolescence takes Donna to the streets of Columbia and back to Plainfield, through first love, friendships, and betrayals that test her spirit. But can she gain her freedom and shed the label she has carried since childhood?

Black Sheep Rising is a self-help memoir about rising, and the author invites readers to answer questions that help them examine their lives and rise alongside her above the trauma they have experienced. Donna Theresa’s life is surrounded by complex people, including Ann, the mother who "votes for the winner," and Ms. Beere, the teacher who disciplines without destroying the self-worth of the students. The memoir has a strong sense of place, from the lawn-chair poverty in the Melvin Park Apartments to the library path guarded by “Flabby Lady” and her dog, Frog. Donna writes cleverly about breaking generational cycles, transforming pain into wisdom through every page. The prose is sparse; short sentences read like poetry, capturing the emotions, the pain, and the duality of freedom and despair. Her fragmented, verse-like prose makes the book a rhythmic, intimate, unflinching testimony.

Black Sheep Rising: A Self-Help Memoir by Donna Theresa is written in a poetic style and reads as both a healing book and the author’s story. It begins with her childhood, born in 1961 during a blizzard in Plainfield, New Jersey, and moves through a turbulent adolescence in Maryland. Named after her father's mistress, her mother blames Donna for her own arrival. Donna immediately becomes the “Black Sheep” of the family and the scapegoat that bears the pain that was never hers to carry. The episodic chapters follow a mother who organizes a neighborhood fight and cheers for her daughter’s opponent and a stepfather whose kindness is the veneer that hides abuse. The public library becomes her sanctuary, along with Ms. Beere, a teacher, and strangers who offer unexpected help.

Donna Theresa writes in a style that will appeal to poetry fans, as each chapter of this engaging book ends with “Thought Reflections” that contain questions to help readers connect with the story. I was moved by how well the author explores pain and power in the same story. The tone is intimate, wry at times, and tinged with hurt, yet never yielding to self-pity or bitterness. Black Sheep Rising uses the image of a mother as a symbol, cleverly illustrating how it can inspire pain and a perennial sense of rejection. The plainspoken prose makes the story not only accessible but engaging with its deliberate tone. The author insists her mother's portrait holds light alongside harm. The fragmented, verse-like lineation in style slows trauma into breath-sized units: “Love and pain / got tied together early— / quietly.” This book packs a lot of insight into a journey from trauma to healing.