The BookLife Prize — Critic’s Report — February 2020

This unflinching and inspiring memoir explores the historical mistreatment of individuals with intellectual disabilities deemed “defective.” Movingly, Flanagan-Hyde recounts her personal experience as the sibling of one of these individuals, who was sent away from the author’s family as a toddler into a life of neglect and abuse.
In even, narrative-driven prose, Flanagan-Hyde writes vividly of her childhood, conveying circumstances as she remembers them—and as she came to understand them through the wisdom of hindsight. She takes an original approach to the traditional memoir. Her work tells both her own story as well as that of her sister, Mary Jean, whose experience of abuse, neglect, and discrimination also drive Flanagan-Hyde’s personal and professional decision making into adulthood. She bravely tackles a painful history, both of her own family, and of the system that—perhaps unwittingly—mistreated marginalized and vulnerable communities.