Reviewed by Viga Boland for Readers' Favorite

Ghost by Lea Tonin is one of the most unusual memoirs I have ever read…and I have read a lot of memoirs! When Lea is 14, going on 15, she can no longer withstand the constant brutality of her Japanese stepfather. Any infractions or challenges to his demands by Lea are met with fisted thumps to her face or head. She and her sisters are forced to work on household duties all day. The children are near starving and often deprived of their meals if the stepfather is unhappy with them. Filled with rage, Lea runs away into the forest where she survives with the help of a couple of friends who bring her food every so often. But when she becomes seriously ill after a thunderstorm, she recovers in her grandmother‘s home and later is returned to her mother and stepfather. Then the horror begins again.

I found the details of Lea’s childhood and the actions and motivations of the adults in her immediate and extended family incomprehensible. How could the adults of two generations in one family go to such great lengths to protect themselves and their reputations by abusing three young sisters? The explanation is complicated, and Lea Tonin cleverly keeps readers dangling, waiting for clarification for a good portion of the story. What a way to keep us turning the pages. Tonin’s style and approach to writing Ghost are unusual. She prefaces each chapter depicting herself gathering the courage, now as an adult author, to hit the keys on her computer to locate her inner child and tell us more. This approach captures the difficulty an abused person has in sharing the truth. It’s painfully hard. Tonin is also a poet. Some sections begin with a poem; other times, her poetic flair simply appears in the narration. Tonin has also included drawings, sketches, and paintings till we get a final photo of her in her author’s bio. She is a beautiful woman and looks happy. As a fellow abuse victim, I am happy for her and applaud her decision to tell the truth after years of cover-up. Bravo!