Rate this book

I'm Perfect, You're Doomed: Tales From A Jehovah's Witness Upbringing (2009)

by Kyria Abrahams(Favorite Author)

3.36 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1416556842 (ISBN13: 9781416556848)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Touchstone Books

review 1: Pretty bad. Picked it up after Jehovah's Witnesses keep knocking my door. This book started out ok about being a kid whose mother became a Jehovah's Witness and she never being all that into it. But ultimately, it's a white trash memoir. There are a lot of strange things in the book that make it almost unreadable. There are random boldings of words throughout - the words "hopes" and "dreams" are in bold or different fonts for no reasons. Then, this meanders into the territory of her alcoholic husband, and dozens of pages about the search for a daycare she could stand. No particular wit, just a long litany of what was wrong with one after another. You have got to be kidding. Reads like a bad journal of your typical blue collar single mother, but not well written, unique in ... morestory (other than leaving the Jehovah's Witness program and losing her family, which is actually kind of minor). I also can't help but think her attachment issues are going to screw up her son forever.
review 2: TWO STARSI had hopes for this book. I thought it could show a background I didn't have, and its' cover suggests amusement could be found within. I was, however, disappointed. Dull. Too long for how little there is in it. Mostly just someone's tale, as often merely coloured (yes, only coloured) by someone having been raised to be deeply religious as actually connected to being a Jehovah's Witness. Lacking much detail more than a short story could have provided. At times lacking details around age or events that are central to properly understanding what the author is trying to communicate. It just comes off as a naive, silly little girl becomes a naive, silly young woman and then... There is no "and then". Sadly, it falls into the common memoir problem. It's a slice of the life of a stranger. Someone who has got the idea they have a story to tell that just has to get out there in print. Yet they have little more than an article to say. They don't know who they're writing for (who is this book directed at? Current JWs? Ex JWs? People who nothing about the JWs? It fails as all three). They don't know when to end it. Not every person's story needs be told. Different from the majority doesn't automatically make for fascinating. But even if people do profess a casual fascination ("You know, you should write a memoir"), doesn't mean the final result will be interesting and capable writing. Memoir writers often have a lot to learn from novelists about storytelling, pace, structure, descriptive language, and whether or not something warrants inclusion. Unfortunately, Kyra Abrahams is firmly amongst these aforementioned memoir writers, providing budding writers of (subsection of) life stories with a "how not to".For those who fit in the same category as myself regarding this background (that is, never having been a JW), my recommendation is that you do not bother with this one. (I'd rather extend that recommendation to all, giving its' overwhelming flaws, but I can't be sure how a current or former JW would feel about any threads they may find pertinent in this mess). less

Download links for: I'm Perfect, You're Doomed: Tales from a Jehovah's Witness Upbringing

Advertising