Bonnie Thompson was nine years old when she realized her dad secretly wanted to be her mom. And that her mother was lost and numb in her own pain and unreachable by Bonnie and her older sister. Bonnie experienced endless trials and losses in an impoverished childhood: her dad transitioning to a woman; her parents’ divorce; a narcissistic mother who brought a monster into the house; loss of her baby sister; intense bullying at school; heartache, and always, always trying to fit in and belong somewhere and to someone who loved her. She became the parent of her parents. Stark. Unsentimental. Frank. A story of a child and teenager forced to survive by her wits to escape her unprotected world. For readers of Educated, The Glass Castle, Wild, and Maid— this unusual and powerful memoir about Bonnie’s resilience is impossible to set down.