a very gripping and emotional autobiography

pros:
- the book covers a large period of time very smoothly, dealing with a lot of very difficult topics and still finding humour in places. I was rooting for Heywood all the way through. 
- she charts her changing relationship with the journey, her parents, and the sea very adeptly, and it made me pretty emotional at times. she shows such incredible strength with her drive to get herself out of this situation she is essentially trapped in, dealing with emotional abuse, neglect, confinement, forced work, abandonment, poverty, near death encounters, loneliness, and depression.
- but she deals with all of these awful things so practically and straight forwardly that it almost doesnt immediately register how awful it is. the time when she was stuck alone in Auckland was the hardest part to read, with how incredibly down she gets amidst impossible circumstances (and absolutely no support from her brother either), and yet still pulls through.
- the writing was easy to read, highly evocative and very compelling. the pictures also really added to the story and imagery.
- I also liked that she tried to track down Wavewalker later in life. 

cons:
- not really a con, but I just honestly couldn't believe that she had continued a decent relationship with her pretty terrible parents until she decided to write the book. I guess it was very hard to deal with what they had done.

in all, a very compelling and moving autobiography about a very unique and difficult childhood and teen years that I will definitely not forget any time soon.