Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite

Her Name Was Kelly by Michael Custos is a heartfelt and deeply honest memoir of a young boy’s descent into the world of state control and upbringing in California. The author’s father left their home when he was just a young lad, and his mother had a succession of boyfriends, culminating in Leonard, a drug user and violent man who would literally torture Michael and his siblings for hours. Taken from the family home at the age of nine, after an incident in which his sister was badly burned, Michael would spend years traveling between one state institution and the next, always hoping, wishing, and praying that one day he would find a place to belong. A Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) by the name of Kelly would ultimately change Michael’s life and give him the love, attention, and direction he so desperately craved. Kelly’s appointment was only meant to be temporary, but she would become an integral part of his life, in one way or another, right up to her last days. What mattered most to Michael was that Kelly chose him. Finally, someone in this world wanted Michael for nothing other than the fact that she loved him. Through trials and tribulations in his life for the next two decades, Kelly would always be there to help pick up the pieces.

Her Name Was Kelly is a powerful and emotional read. For those of us who were fortunate to have grown up in a relatively safe environment, it is heartbreaking to read of the abuse and neglect that so many children suffer at the hands of those who were supposed to love and want them. Author Michael Custos has been brutally frank in this memoir and has pulled no punches. What I appreciated most was the author’s willingness to accept and embrace his own shortcomings, especially in his relationship with Kelly and with others. Readers will absolutely feel the pain of abandonment and the lack of love that this young boy experienced. His simple wish of wanting to be chosen by someone, anyone, is the powerful emotion that I will take away from this story. I think the final scene is one that will fill readers with a sense of bittersweet joy, something that was lacking from so much of Michael’s early life. This is not the first memoir I have read about the CASA system, but it is the first I have read from a recipient’s point of view. This just reinforces, for me, how important the CASA concept is for the children caught up in the state welfare system and the amazing people who are prepared to give themselves totally to help abandoned, lost, and desperate children. Michael’s biggest success in life was that he was finally loved and chosen by a select few, and that, for me, sums up the entire point of this memoir. I was moved and thrilled by this account and highly recommend it.