Customer Reviews

Daddy's Girl

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the best book I have ever read that captured the struggle that a women had to go through from her childhood into her married years. It not only shows her reaction to the abuse but, it shows how family and friends reacted to knowing the secret she kept for so many years. I recommend this book for anyone who has suffered sexual abuse, their partners, friends, family members and for anyone else who would like to gain knowledge on the subject.

I got this because I wanted to understand the people I know who went throught this. This is the real story of a woman who went through hell. She describes what her father put her through and how it affected her adult years. She shares the emotions she went through during the abuse. ...how dirty she felt. ...and how this affected relationships as an adult. This is something everyone should read. This isn't simply a psychology book discussing how abuse affects people. This is one person's detailed example of what the abuse does to someone.

Of all the books written on the subject of child abuse, this book (one of the very first published) stands alone as a singular accomplishment. It is honest and insightful, yet never overly graphic. The author brings her considerable writing talent to bear on her reflection of how years of abuse shaped her as an adult and a parent. Never bitter, never placing blame, Charlotte Vale Allen offers a potent look at the insidious permanent effects of her childhood experience. It is a gracious, heartfelt autobiography in which the author not only never names her parents but, in many ways, offers an understanding of the family dynamics at play that is nothing less than remarkable. To read her fiction and then to read this book is to see a very full portrait of a woman with the heart of a lion and a powerful gift of insight into the behavior, not only of others but also of her own self--past and present. It is the definitive book to read in order to comprehend how an extraordinary child coped with an ongoing horror and yet emerged to take what she'd learned and turn it to the good by writing books that always offer viable explanations for what is, so often, inaccessible to most of us. In its own right, Daddy's Girl is a quiet masterpiece.

Although this book was written two decades ago, it is still a ground-breaking memoir. In fact, it was the first book on sexual abuse I had ever read. As a victim myself, Vale Allen's voice helped me realize my feelings were normal, I wasn't to blame and that I could make something of myself.
Vale Allen uses her skills as a novelist to reveal her life-altering experience in surprisingly entertaining way.
Unfortunately all these years later, there are too many new victims. I hope Daddy's Girl will help them as it helped me.

DADDY'S GIRL is Charlotte Vale Allen's story - it is her autobiography. What makes this book important, is that it is NOT just any story. It is a story of incest and of one person's brave ordeal in telling it to the public.

Ms Allen grew up in a family that seemed to thrive on lies. And the biggest lies that surrounded the family were the problems they had with Daddy. He was abusive to all of them: he constantly yelled at her mother; he tried often to physically hurt her. Her brothers were treated a little better, but they too were filled with anger and fear for their father. Charlotte, however, developed a "special" bond, that continued for many years. Because of this abuse, Charlotte grew up with a number of neuroses and fears that followed her into adulthood.

The book takes place in the present, with flashbacks starting from her earliest memories. What I liked about the way the story was written, was that it helped us see how her past affected her present life. She took the time to compare herself and her daughter, and the relationship they had, to what she had with her own mother, many years ago. Her relationship with her father destroyed her ability to trust any man, and she shows the reader how she slowly over came this.

I found DADDY'S GIRL, despite its theme, an easy book to read. Ms Allen's style of writing enables the reader to see HER world through the eyes of herself as a child. I think this is important because it helps convey what she truly went through. What's most important is that she was able to tell the story from her point of view. If it had been written from a third person narrative, the book would have been a more impersonal telling, and would not have come across as poignant as it did. I highly recommend DADDY'S GIRL.

Charlotte Vale Allen came to our school to discuss the issue of incest. She was a phenomenal guest speaker. Her book is also excellent. She tells of her troubling encounter with incest. Hopefully her book will give individuals who experience incest the power to speak out against it!!! Thanks Chalotte!!!

Back in high school, I read this book and I still remember the impact it had on me then. This book is great education for learning about the abuse through the victom's eyes and how they see it. For those who have had regular childhood, this book almost seems horrifying for the mental, physical and emotional abuse that went on for a child that wanted to be just like any other child but didn't know how. It is only normal that she couldn't get out of her situation, because she didn't understand what was normal except for what she experienced with others or saw - until her adult years in life and to be able to compair to what it should have been. That goes for any child. I recommend anyone to read this book. Thanks for reading my review.

I was sexually and physically abused from the age of 6 which is when I first came to NJ to meet and then live with my biological mother, I read this book as a young child..quite a few times, i credit the author with saving my life she helped me with understanding what was happending to me and that it was not my fault but his, this book helped me to understand what obstacles I could potentially expect in my life. Thank you to Charlotte...for helping give me the strength to go on in all of my hard times .... to this very day XOXO

This was one of the dumbest books I ever read. By the time she was 18 years old, she certainly knew what she was doing was wrong.