A mother suffering from mental illness.

A little sweet girl who wants nothing more than her mother’s love.

Family members who turn their backs to the blatant horror that is staring them in the face.

Call Me Tuesday was a tough book to read. Based on true events, it is a fictionalized story of what really happened to author Leigh Byrne while growing up. It reads like a memoir and in its true sense, that’s just what it is.

Using first person point of view, Byrne recounts her childhood while growing up with a mother who, after falling from the stairs and suffering a head injury, becomes unstable and increasingly violent and sadistic. The horror of the scenes is heightened by the author’s simple, straight-forward style. However, the true tragedy of this story lies in the fact that other people, including the girl’s father, knew what was going on but chose to ignore it.

Call Me Tuesday reminds us that situations like this happen more often than we think. It reminds us that we should be aware of this problem and also to act and not just watch, if the situation ever calls for it. I hope the writing of this work was therapeutic for Byrne. It takes hope and courage to put everything down on paper and share it with readers the way she did. Of course, it’s a plus that the prose is clean and flows well and that the voice is tragically honest without being melodramatic.

Visit the author’s website.

My review originally appeared in Blogcritics.