A Teenager's Journey: Overcoming a Childhood of Abuse [Hardcover]

Richard B. Pelzer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2006

This triumphant follow-up to his "New York Times" bestselling memoir "A Brother's Journey" chronicles Pelzer's heartbreaking teenage years as he struggled with the effects of childhood abuse and how a surrogate family offered him comfort and hope.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

AUTHORBIO: RICHARD B. PELZER lives in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (May 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044657970X
• ISBN-13: 978-0446579704
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #727,654 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lousy rush job., June 5, 2006

By 

Gingerwoman (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Teenager's Journey: Overcoming a Childhood of Abuse (Hardcover)

I wrote an Amazon review of "A Brother's Journey" in which I called the book emotionally accurate and even a "shining achievement". It was.
This book on the other hand is by far the most poorly written of all the Pelzer brothers books.
Richard wrote this book using diaries he kept during the years he was a drug addict. Did he copy passages verbatim from his drug diaries?
I'm guessing he did because he was under pressure from Time-Warner to get this money maker on the road.
I hate to say anything bad about one of these boys and I do believe their story but this book is horrifically overpriced for under 200 pages. It costs more than a paper back copy of My Story that contains all three of David's books.
The reason I suggest he copied passages verbatim from the drug diaries is that this is truly one of the most poorly written books I've ever read and this is surprising because I thought "A Brother's Jorney" was well written. This book on the other hand is just incredibly rambling, vague, repetitious and disjointed.
There is really not much to it.
R.Pelzer gets involved with drugs. His mother can't bash him cause he's six foot tall but she continues her emotional abuse. Pelzer befriends some nice people and hides his drug abuse from them.
The rest of the 200 pages is endless vauge agonised rambling about how bad he felt about hiding drug abuse from the nice people. There is really not much more to the book than that.
Two stars instead of one for one evocative description of a drug trip and because I feel bad for him. First he was exploited by his mother and now it's his editor and publishers.
A Brother's Journey showed he had potential as a writer. Then he got forced in to tossing out this garbage.
No one bothered to edit this book. They knew people would rush out to buy it and so will you, despite this review.
But you'd be better off spending your money on "The Priviledge of Youth.
The only truly uplifting Pelzer book is "A Man Named Dave."

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars First review, June 24, 2006

By 

Marnie Scholl-Moore "Special Ed Teach 12" (Hatfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Teenager's Journey: Overcoming a Childhood of Abuse (Hardcover)

I often read reviews of books that I am considering for purchase. I read "A Brother's Journey" and found it to be a better read, that kept my interest and that had some good writing. With this book, "A Teenager's Journey" I was somewhat disappointed. Since I depend so often on others reviews of books, I am beginning to think that I need to take the time to review what I have purchased. Again, I sympathize with both Richard and David, but this book did not make me feel strong emotions that made me want to turn page after page to see what would happen next.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Teenager's Journey, September 30, 2008

By 

Suzie Q (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Teenager's Journey: Overcoming a Childhood of Abuse (Hardcover)

I believe I suffered throughout the reading of this book as much as I suffered through the reading of his brother David's books. This book demostrates how guilt over one's actions in life can almost destoy a person. I would like to offer this encouragement to the brother of David, the author of this book regarding guilt. I know that he will never forgive himself for his part in this tragedy, but I heard on the radio a lady preacher speak about guilt and how to handle it. She said that guilt was something that comes from Satan to get Christians down and discouraged. It's destructive and doesn't come from God. Forgiveness and love comes from God. So he must be assured that God has forgiven him in order to forgive himself. My heart goes out to him and hope that he can or has forgiven himself so that he can heal and be reconciled with his brother, David. I recommend this book and the entire series concerning this most disfunctional family I've ever heard of and how impotent the school and law enforcement authorities were in dealing with abusive and mentally ill parents (in this case the mother) because of an antiquated view of the rights of parents being more important than the best interests of the child.