3 out of 4 stars
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Life is all about making choices. We always reach a point in time where we must make one. Even failing to choose is still a choice. Whether we make a bad or a good choice, we must encounter the consequences owing to that particular choice. Out Of the Ashes by Tyra Hodge is the rewrite of the original shocking book - A Wounded Daughter's Diary; the first in the new series of A wounded Daughter's Diary books.
In this novel, Deanna equates herself to an imprudent movie character walking vulnerably and unarmed from one perilous situation into another. Deanna starts going to the clubs at age twenty-two and later moves to strip dancing owing to peer pressure in order to pay her bills. Impelled by the sudden attention she receives from men in the club, she frequents the clubs till one time she finds herself in jail charged with public obscenity. Furthermore, Deanna's life takes a new direction when she is raped and resorts to taking cocaine peradventure she may hide from the shame. All the while, she has the intuition that God is telling her to change her ways.
Out Of the Ashes is comparable to the book Bad Choices Make Good Stories by Oliver Markus Malloy. While Deanna plays the victim in Out Of the Ashes, Oliver plays the rescuer in Bad Choices Make Good Stories.
This book has a great progression that easily pulls the reader into the writer's shoes through every ordeal she experiences. The themes: Drugs abuse, Discrimination, and family are well chatted to clearly portray the purpose of the memoir. It's encouraging that nothing holds Deanna back from telling a story that many would opt to conceal. Even where she hit rock-bottom, there is a lesson she has displayed for all to learn.
The book's cover page is well-designed to match the title, thus grabbing the reader's attention long before the reading is started. Conversely, the table of contents looks congested which makes it rather hard to single out each topic. There were punctuation and grammar errors, missing articles and misplaced words which made the reading somewhat slow.
I would recommend this book to counsellors in rehabilitation centres as it would help a great deal. However, the presence of sexual scenes may be a trigger to some readers. Therefore, the novel may not fit such readers. I could have awarded the novel 3.5 stars if it were possible but I have to give it 3 out of 4 stars owing to the aforementioned mistakes.
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Out of the Ashes
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