I don't like to rate memoirs because it feels like I'm judging a person's life and experience based on how much it entertained me, so the 5 stars are more symbolic than anything. This book has made me cry several times, and it has opened my eyes in many ways. It's one thing to learn about systemic racism in school, and a different one to read about someone's life so terribly dictated by it. I think this should be a mandatory reading, yet I wouldn't recommend it to people without cautioning them about the trigger warnings! It is a hard story to read at times, which only made me connect even more to it every time I remembered it was not fiction, but someone's life.

I'll definitely read more books of hers!