A memoir from a child roped into her parents' drug trade from an early age - at times hard, at times somehow humorous. Recommended for readers of Education and similar memoirs.

This story was intense and wild—from a preschooler cutting drugs with a razor to an alcoholic young adult getting ordained as a minister. Trent's parents suffered from such extreme mental illness it's truly a miracle she's alive, let alone functional. I was definitely hooked as I read this story, wondering how this poor little girl would grow up to the point where she could write this book as an intelligent, successful woman with so much perspective on her life. I would say the one thing I was missing was a little bit more at the end—I wanted to see how she dealt with the aftermath of what her parents put her through as an adult. I also felt like I was missing how she felt about religion specifically. Most of the book dealt with how her parents felt about it and used it and how she reacted to that, but I never got the sense of her own personal feelings that have kept her involved in it to this day. Still, this was amazing story and I'm glad I got to read it.

Between Two Trailers was SO GOOD!

I can't wait to recommend this to all of my memoir lovers., and I suspect this may end up on Obamas reading list for 2024. Dana begins this memoir when she is in preschool and helping her father, a diagnosed schizophrenic, run drug deals in their small town. Meanwhile her mother, who has her own personality disorder is languishing away in bed for years before she leaves taking Dana with her and leaving Dana's only home and family behind.

What follows is years of parenting upward in unstable situations, while Dana essentially raises herself.

Booksellers this is the perfect hand sell for readers who like Educated and The Glass Castle.

This digital review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. Huge thanks to Netgalley and Convergent books for my review copy!

This was another DNF. I didn’t get along with the writing and I felt like it was all over the place. Being a memoir I don’t want to give it a star rating. It’s this author’s story and just because I didn’t like it doesn’t mean other people won’t. It just didn’t work for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

And you thought your childhood was difficult.

Dana Trent is the child of two drug addicted schizophrenics who met and fell in love on the psych ward. The fact that she lived to adulthood is astonishing. Her story is captivating; my thanks go to NetGalley and Random House for the invitation to read and review. This memoir will be available to the public April 16, 2024.

“’Kids make the best hustlers,’ King told me the week after I was expelled from preschool. He lifted me onto the counter and coated his arms with palmfuls of petroleum jelly from the biggest Vaseline tubs Walmart sold. Then he greased up mine. ‘No one expects a runt in a Looney Tunes T-shirt to shank you,’ he explained. ‘Budgie!’ he said and pointed to my chest, then sealed my street name with a Vaseline cross to my forehead. ‘Budgie,’ I parroted, finger to my own chest…‘Guns are for idiots,’ he added. ‘Here.’ He handed me my first pocketknife, a foldout two-inch blade with a horse and buggy painted on the handle. Knives teach you to accept the inevitable. ‘You’ll get stabbed,’ he said, ‘but you’ll survive. No big deal.’”

The nickname “Budgie” was chosen because she was his lookout on drug deals. She would ride along with him, his trunk stuffed full of drugs, and when he got out, she was stationed on the highest available vantage point. If she saw someone—an ambush, the cops, anyone—she was supposed to sing like a bird. (Even other drug dealers and manufacturers questioned the wisdom of hauling a three year old on such expeditions, but King, as her father was known, was not easily influenced.)

At such moments, one might wonder where her mother was. Usually her mother was either unconscious in bed, or on the way into or out of that state. Because her father was awake and slightly more predictable, Dana considered him the more reliable parent. Before she was old enough for kindergarten, she understood that it was up to her to take care of The Lady.

My initial response to this scenario was to be bitterly angry at whoever decided to expel this child from preschool. Boom, there went that tiny girl’s one tie to the safer, saner world. How could anyone look at her behavior, her clothing, her hair and not call Children’s Services? I’m still fuming.
Miraculously enough, Trent made it to adulthood, and after years and years of therapy, she is able to lead a normal life. She’s achieved a remarkable amount, with a Ph.D. to her credit along with a solid career in academia.

And she can write! There is never a slow moment in this memoir, a hair raising read that I brought out at lunchtime, but never at bedtime. There is very little by way of dialogue, and that makes the swift, steady pacing even more remarkable.

Between Two Trailers is one of the year’s best reads. Highly recommended.

A tribute to resiliency that sometimes feels voyeuristic. It's always hard to understand why parents would use their children in ways most of us can't imagine but that was Trent's life and she confronts her demons. Well, the demons of her parents. This is a family many would turn away from. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Hard to read but important.

Growing up in the middle of drugs and mental illness, Dana somehow manages to achieve adulthood with the help of others, but eventually discovers she is unable to leave her upbringing behind.

This one was so out there that it was hard to connect to. I really felt for the author reading about her childhood and what she went through. It was an interesting memoir and everyone should read this one.

This was an interesting read about growing up with mentally ill parents. It’s hard to even fathom using a child to traffic drugs. But it just goes to show the power they have over people and logical thinking. The author is to be commended for taking her struggles and making something positive from it.

3.5

An interesting debut memoir from Dana Trent whose upbringing was extremely unconventional (please bear in mind I was brought up by middle class parents in Yorkshire). Dana's father, King, and her mother, Lady, met in a mental health facility where they'd both been previously employed. It was clearly a recipe for disaster.

King brought Dana up to be his sidekick when it came to drug deals. Lady wanted Dana to be her minder. I don't doubt that they loved her but they simply weren't capable of providing her with a childhood.

This leads to Dana struggling, in later life, with her own mental health. She struggled to make real friends and continued to be her mother's nurse.

The memoir, for all the chaotic circumstances, shows a young woman who cared for her family and her community very deeply. It's a really moving story that often left me open mouthed that a girl managed to almost bring herself up and keep both parents happy.
J Dana Trent is clearly an extraordinary woman.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Convergent Books for the advance review copy.

𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒏-𝒖𝒑 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔. 𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚, 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔.

Dana Trent divulges in the first chapter that in preschool, her little hands were occupied by helping her “schizophrenic drug-lord father chop, drop and traffic kilos in kiddie-ride carcasses across flyover county.” It was the 1980’s, Dana’s parents were working for a big drug boss. The question is, how did two educated people end up dealing themselves content with their poverty level circumstances? The biggest issue was their wild-ideas, dependence on drugs, and of course mental illness. Home was razor blades, the smell of marijuana, and the Christian Broadcasting Network as the soundtrack. Her father “King” was a cult leader, her mother “the Lady” his queen but his visions did not keep Dana fed nor safe in their shotgun trailer. Her mother could not be bothered with cooking, cleaning, nor nurturing while tucked away in her king-sized bed nesting. Her father’s wildness inducing fear in locals was the only security system they truly had, but the real threat was within the walls.

Instead of her ABCSs and 123s, little Dana was becoming a hustler, learning switchblade thrusts. Captive to her parents’ fights, depression, and delusions, she spent her childhood with an empty belly and surrounded by explosive moods. If there was any luck, it was in the fact that Dana had grandparents and extended family nearby when things got too bad, always a place for food and shelter. There were exciting nights, for a time she was her father’s little shadow, sucking up his courage with glee but that was before she began to see with clarity. With every grand scheme, Dana grew up watching their dreams die. Reaching into the past, she learns about the cycle of abuse and violence. Just how did her parents end up like this? How will Dana herself escape a similar fate? Not everything is a disaster, at times she almost admires her father’s wildness and strength, as much as her mother once did, until she gets older and begins to feel embarrassment, recognizing how others react around King. Longing for her mother to wake up, participate in life, shuck her weed and benzos instead she must live with the grandiosity “the Lady” feels. The combination of her parents as a couple is an unfortunate toxic bomb but even when they are apart life is just as complicated and dark.

Disassociation, trauma, and the poisonous thinking of her unwell parents were facts she had to confront. Abuse exists in various forms, none more painful than the hope born from fresh starts that fizzle out. Family patterns of manipulation, paranoia, muddied perception, all had roots in the past. But how did Dana evolve from such dangerous origins? Is it possible there were life lessons she took from both her mother and father that were beneficial? How did she heal and why did she return home at all? How did she keep love for those who hurt her most? This book is an incredible read, engaging, shocking but inspiring too. I think about the state of mental health in our country, how different family homes would be with the proper help, because it is still a mess today. Dana’s strength resonates throughout the pages. Yes, read it!

Publication Date: April 16, 2024

Convergent Books

Dana Trent knocks it out of the park with a story that carefully explains how someone can be in love with the mess that they were born into. Growing up in rural Indiana to parents who fought each other and their own demons of mental illness, the author finds herself being the responsible one in the family at a very young age. Because of her circumstances, she's raised to be a tough fighter who never knows when the next switchblade is around the corner. Through the grace of a loving extended family, she is able to cling to normalcy on occasion, and start writing her own narrative as she navigates adolescence and young adulthood. Many books have been written about being a child of divorce. Many people have told stories of being surrounded by addiction or battling it themselves. From my own experience and those of many around me, the through-line of an Indiana Hoosier and North Carolina Tarheel upbringing reflects the similarities and contrasts of the Midwest and the South. To understand who you are as an adult, you have to acknowledge where you came from. This story is one of survival, sacrifice, healing, forgiveness, and self awareness. Anyone who struggles with a tough upbringing or a "complicated" family should read this story and perhaps find a path to their own healing.

This book was pretty difficult to read. It seemed disjointed in the writing style, especially toward the beginning. It was a pretty horrific story at the start.

This book was so well done. In the vein of Maid, and Educated, this book follows Dana, a young girl whose father and mother have mental health issues. However, her father is an amazing character. He is not only richly painted by the author, one feels a kinship with Dana, but also sympathy for "King" and how his life has occurred. This is the type of memoir I greatly enjoy because it does not try to gloss over hardships, but also does not make excuses either. The book is raw, engaging, and wonderfully written. I would highly recommend this if you are looking for something different that you would normally get from a memoir.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As a retired Social Worker and Pastor, I found this to be a realistic, heartbreaking, redemptive and exceptional memoir. I applaud writers like J. Dana Trent who are willing to share these intimate details that are undoubtedly painful in an effort to help others understand her story. Thanks #NetGalley #ConvergentBooks #JDanaTrent

This book caught my interest because it is set in rural Indiana, just over 40 miles from where I live. The author mentions so many things about small-town Indiana that I relate to. Her upbringing, however, was vastly different from my own. Hers is a story of mental illness, addiction, poverty, and childhood trauma. I was captivated by her writing style and her ability to look back on the trauma of her youth with a sense of gratitude (after a lot of therapy, of course). Despite the trauma, she came to realize her parents did the best they could. She was loved in the only way they knew to love her. After all, isn’t that what we are all doing? Just doing the best we can do, trying to make it one day at a time. I really enjoyed this memoir, and I commend the author for overcoming such a troubled childhood. Thanks to the publisher, NetGalley, and the author for this ARC.

Many thanks for the complimentary ARC kindly provided by NetGalley and the author/publisher.

This is a book that surprised me and made my Best of 2024 list.

J. Dana Trent has managed to put into words so eloquently her experience with dysfunctional parents and how normal she viewed it since that’s all she ever knew. As an adult, her chaotic life led to evaluating everything she knew and lived to understand the how, what, and why. She gives an in-depth snapshot of each parent and their behavior for a clear understanding of her their mental conditions.

Her realization of never being able to please a parent is insightful. When their expectation of your life doesn’t mesh with yours it’s impossible, and once you realize that you begin to make sense of that feeling of failure. For those of us who can relate to this, it’s a moment to pause and reflect on the point.

I appreciate that with the vast amount of material she had to draw from that she remained focused on the mental illness aspect for this story. Obviously there is much more to tell, and limiting this story to that kept it from going in too many directions.

This powerful book proves that people can overcome bad situations. Dana Trent was just a small child in drug filled home and world. She sought change for herself and others. This book is a gripping tale of what many Americans live like on a daily basis. A very informative read.

Between Two Trailers is a beautifully human story. I hate rating and reviewing the story of other people's lives, because having the vulnerability to bare yourself to the world takes guts and courage that I only dream of possessing.
J. Dana Trent's journey of life as a child, an adolescent, and an adult was filled with fear, longing, and uncertainty, something I think we all can relate to at one time or another. I think what made this story so powerful is that she refused to name a good guy or a bad guy. She didn't favor one parent more than the other. She gave us an open, honest and frank recapturing of her life. All of it's highs and lows included.
This book was a reminder that people are complex, humans are not clear-cut good or evil, the nuance of experiences, health and situations dictate what happens.
Like she says at the end, (paraphrasing) "The only evil is pretending (her life) didn't exist."

It’s hard to rate memoirs because it feels like I’m rating someone’s life experience. The book was good in the sense that it did what it was supposed to do: tell the author’s story. It was heavy at times but that’s to be expected and the author did hint at that through the synopsis. It did feel repetitive at times and maybe the author could have talked about some other stories that could have tied in with this book. Overall it was worth the read.

Thank you NetGalley and the author for the early access to this novel. All opinions are my own.