An oasis in this wasteland;

This, I daresay, is one of the most heart wrenching novels that I've ever read, knowing that it's not fictitious. To think that all of the events in this sum of pages really happened in real life - I just don't know what to say.

I've read it when my cousin, who had recently given birth to a wonderful baby girl (and I was immediately smitten by the little thing), lent it to me. She wasn't done throughout the whole book, but she had to take care of the baby so she didn't really have much time to finish everything - which where I came in, asking for the read.

Anyway, I could not put the book down; meaning that I've gone through the whole thing overnight! It's just one of those books wherein you couldn't put it down because you would want to know what happens next. It had given me a lot of head aches the next day, but it was so worth it.

To suffer at a very young age - and the cause was your very own family - was just truly devastating. I don't think I could treat anyone as badly as she, Cynthia, was treated. All she did was to go by the given rules, to make it through the day with full of innocence and love - but life wasn't usually fair to everyone. Especially her. 

At the age of eight, she was molested by her very own father and was sold by her mother to strangers who just can't seem to get enough of pedophilia. After that, she had a kid made with her father against her will. With all of these, she bore no hatred for them.

And when she saw the face of her little child, it was as if the world was wiped away and all she could see was her. Though, not a minute after, her mother stabbed the baby - who was later named Noleen - with a knitting needle everywhere she could get it in to, resulting to forty stab wounds and the death of the little girl.

I, as a reader, could feel the whole world that was her child being brought down. It was then that Cynthia knew that she was wronged all her life. Loving someone unconditionally doesn't have to be that way. And she knew that she had to be stronger for both of them (her and her little girl).

But the abuse didn't stop; no. And there was a still-born baby boy who died immediately - and her only thought was she didn't have to love him. He didn't have to suffer like Noleen did.

So, this is the story of her - and everyone else who suffered the wrath of their home (from her brothers and sister who committed suicide). And a book you would never forget reading (like I would).

I cried for Noleen, and for her sufferings. My heart broke because after I saw my little niece - my cousin's little girl - I suddenly knew that she was going to be a very beautiful beginning of a story. And I kept thinking about her as I read this book, about Noleen, and how people could do something like that to a wonderful baby, with all of the innocence staring into your eyes. It was breathtaking, and I wasn't even the mother.

My last words in this were that nobody should suffer that much. Not even the most cruel human being should. I'm starting to keep this in mind, and I have to learn not to be easily mad and infuriated with someone who doesn't deserve my hatred. And the lead in this story never for a second deserved everything she went through. Greed is bullshit - humility and knowing what is right would get you on, no matter what life throws at you.

I'm glad that Cynthia Owen made it.