BUT - the ingredients turned to mush in the production process. Undoubtedly, the story has the ingredients for a good memoir: drugs, sex, love, good-girl-gone-bad, family dysfunction, friendship, alcoholism, and parenting.

The mountainous numbers of thoughtlessly passive words such as 'there is/are,' 'stuff,' 'things,' 'lots,' and 'was/were' made me cringe as a teacher, reader, and editor. If the author would have shown the world through her eyes instead of told the world what she saw through her eyes, she could have been a raging success. So, here's the thing: this book is a classic example of telling instead of showing. It's unfortunate, too, because I love memoirs and I appreciate the author's intent and dedication to her dream of becoming an author. I wish that I could say I loved it, but I didn't. You'll find references to Dorothy's journey of self-discovery, replete with all the colorful characters and settings of the original parable.

Note: The author successfully weaves allusions to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz throughout her own odyssey. Yes there are elements of this story that appeal to us individually, but Thorpe's triumphant emancipation from her past belongs to us all. Drawn from journals she kept while working through personal issues, 'Fisheye' carries us from the depths of the unthinkable to an ultimate place of positive reawakening.

With remarkably adept word craft from a debut author, Thorpe explores issues that are both intensely private and startlingly universal. You'll find yourself shaking your head in wonder as Trish uses her wide-angle (fisheye) observations to guide us through jaw-dropping experiences. A nineteen-year-old boyfriend introduced her to sex at thirteen and became her gateway into a world that her parents never could have imagined. Left on her own, Trish descended into a desperate world of addiction and risk-both physical and emotional-unimaginable from the spoiled, fantasy life of her childhood. Eventually dreams of stardom eroded, tension became unbearable, and the family imploded. Life for the author and her siblings ricocheted between forced conversations with beautiful people and a house rife with deafening silence. Add an alcoholic wannabe movie star mom and a Southern California community full of itself like no other and you have the ingredients for an unforgettable story. Wedged between talkative, fidgety older brother Spencer (more equipped to interact with electronics than people) and younger sister Grace (a bubbly, pink-sequined, girly girl), tomboy Trish grew into the family golden child - unwittingly providing fuel for her narcissist father's cruelty. Written with the taut, plot-driven momentum of a fictional yarn, this true story reveals an insider's intimate details of the California dream gone horribly wrong.

Fisheye by Trish Thorpe