I was lucky enough to win an electronic ARC of KIN by Shawna Kay Rodenberg in a Shelf Awareness giveaway. Thank you for the early look, and stay safe!

Ultimately I think there is a powerful story here, but the narrative was really all over the place. The book follows an alternating timeline structure, which is a very interesting choice for a memoir and it didn't land for me. I found the main timeline interesting, but the jumping around made it hard to follow. It definitely may work better for some.

I appreciate the chance to read and review this ARC but unfortunately I was unable to finish it due to triggering topics and a very disjointed writing style that was too hard to follow.

I loved the idea of this book and enjoyed the story but I think it was missing a good editor. Parts that weren't very compelling rambled on for many pages and really made parts of the book a slog.. I didn't see the value in all those letters from Vietnam or the timeline switching. I don't know why those choices were made and it took a lot of the enjoyment out of the book.

I love reading memoirs.. but sometimes they are difficult to review because I hate to think I am bashing someone’s lived experience. With that being said, I strongly disliked this book. It was long, rambling, and at times incoherent. The timeline was so all over the place it was hard to know what was happening. Even within chapters the timeline jumped around and was super choppy. My other major issue with this book was that a memoir should be the authors lived experience, however, she had chapters told from the POV of others, even from before she was even born. Very detailed info, not just the hear say/retelling of family stories. Things the author could not have known, about smells and sounds and thoughts that these people were having. Things I don’t even know about myself, let alone my parents from 30 odd years ago. I am glad the author got her happy ending and I wish her all the best, but unfortunately this book really missed the mark for me. The content is there but I think it needs to be re-edited to adjust the timeline and rethink the other POVs. Also, I would remove the 20 pages of her fathers army letters. They didn’t add anything to the story.

Very difficult to follow at times. But I did stick it out until the end, I still am confused about the outcome of the writer's life.

I got 47% of the way through Kin, but i just couldn't bring myself to keep reading. Kin is about author Shawna Kay Rodenberg's experience growing up in The Body, an end-of-times relgious community in Minnesota, and then her family's subsequent return to the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky.

I had a hard time with the writing style of this book. I often had trouble following the differing narratives, due tot the swift and numerous temporal changes as well as the many differing points of view. Some of the chapters were told from the author's point of view, while others were told from her mother's and other family members' viewpoints. And, although this is no fault of hte author's, there were a lot of characters, and it was a bit difficult to keep track of all of them/how they were all related.

I also felt like the book was missing some puzzle pieces that would have helped me better understand teh author's experiences, especially since I really had no point of reference for what she experienced growing up. For example, she talks about her older brother JEsse having some serious and dangerous outbursts that caused her and her family to fear for their lives, and the fact that he was kept in a locked cage. But, as far as I read, she never talked about whether Jesse suffered from any sort of mental illness (even if it wasn't diagnosed at the time).

While I appreciate the author's willingness to put herself and her story out there into the world, ultimately, this book just wasn't my cup of tea.

Shawna's father moved their family from Kentucky to Minnesota in order to live a more religious life and renounce their earthly belongings in an off the grid community. A mesmerizing story of life in a cult, sexual abuse and a father trying to do right by his family, this memoir is not to be missed!

Young Shawna and her family ( mother, father, and sister ) moved from place to place, due to poverty and an unfocused lifestyle. They lived with and without a religious sect in Minnesota, bu mostly they resided in Kentucky. The book focuses on the abnormal childhoods of Shawna and her mother. I would have preferred a chronological timeline in this book, but I found some of the anecdotes hard to believe even if the book hard been in chronological order..

With some of her early years spent in a cult in northern Minnesota, that in itself would be enough to make an interesting memoir. When Rodenberg's family moved from the cult's compound back to their kin in Kentucky, she lived out the rest of her childhood years in the unique culture of Appalachia. This book was hard to read at times, with tales of abuse and mental illness, but Rodenberg doesn't present her story with a "woe is me" attitude. The book seemed to lose steam a little bit as she entered her college years and early adulthood, but overall this was a very readable memoir.

* Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for providing me with this book.

Kin by Shawna Kay Rodenberg is a memoir of survival with the good and the bad in and out of religious cult fervor. Like most kids, she spent much of her youth trying to figure out how to please parents who set their own rules and carried with them many of their own demons from childhood. Rodenberg make no excuses for the self-admitted rebellion of her youth. Loyalty runs deep in her bloodline. As Rodenberg tells her story, she frames up her parent’s generational past to explain the who and why of what they became. Coupled with their periodic journey in and out of their cult utopia, this powerful book reveals the most elemental flaws of the human psyche under that spasmodic influence.

I couldn’t help but think of the saying truth is stranger than fiction as Rodenberg describes the relations in her family tree. It’s important to note the chapter dates to adjust to the timeline jumps, and I wish there was a family tree diagram to help keep track of the generations. While admittedly not laid out chronologically as smooth as The Glass Castle, Educated and The Sound of Gravel, those who loved those book will find much to like in Kin, and like those others this story will stay with you for quite some time.

4.5 stars rounded up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the opportunity to read Kin and provide and honest review.

I attended university in Appalachia and grew up in the adjacent area so the story author Shawna Kay Rodenberg shares in Kin was one that was understandable and familiar to me. I feel as if this memoir would have been much stronger had it been told in a different, perhaps chronological order. Although I typically enjoy when a story is told with flashbacks, the way this book flipped back and forth was confusing to me at times and seemed arbitrary.

I found this story very unique, interesting, important, and meaningful. Definitely not a story for the faint of heart. Often we forget how different other cultures or organizations live from us. I found that fact to be intriguing, purposeful, of great intentions but still real, raw, sad, and shameless. She made it through and I'm glad Shawna was able to tell her story.

Thank you to the author and Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this advance reader copy.

#kin #netgalley #nonfiction #secret society

Memoirs are intriguing & compelling to me as they tell a story about real people who can open one's mind to a fascinating world. A family who joined & lived in a religious world who required their cult members, known as The Body, to adhere to strict routines. Children were required to sit through services for prolonged lengths of time with no childhood stimulation. The main character, Shawna Kay Rodenberg, narrates a colorful account of her life in a family who were searching for meaning & contentment in a life that was disturbed by a father's tour in Vietnam. He loved his wife & children; however, he lacked the discernment to feel & fulfill Kay's emotional needs. His discipline was harsh & Kay was searching for unconditional love in a life of turmoil. Moving many times, the Rodenberg's lifestyle was not conducive to raising two, young girls who lacked roots in their lives.
Kay whose lively, creative & emphatic spirit sought approval from her parents was misunderstood by most except her grandmother.
Living in Appalachia among a disturbed extended family, Kay experienced some love, forgiveness & rejection.
"Kin" was interesting, except I had a hard time remembering the names of the extended family members & their roles in Kay's life. The writing was partially disjointed.

Rodenberg tells her story of her younger years living in a religious group called The Body,  as well as her troubled teen and early adult years, and shares stories of abuse that has haunted her family for generations.  I have read many memoirs of similar situations over the years, and for some reason Kin just didn't stick with  me.  The writing at times was dry and emotionless.  There were really no explanations or inner reflections, which left me feeling a bit disconnected to the author's story.  And while I try not to rate an early release ecopy based on editing errors, I really hope this one receives an extensive editing before publication.  The layout is choppy and at times confusing.  It almost felt like someone was playing with the cut and paste buttons as random thoughts/paragraphs would pop up in the middle of another narrative.    I would be willing to reread this after the final edit to see if I feel any different, but at this time my rating stands at a solid three stars.

September 2019 I was in the Appalachian for a few days and something of the place really connected within me for some reason. Such beautiful places and memories! So I was really exited to read a book set there.
This memoir is a power story of survival, Shawna goes through terrible experiences, all kinds of abuses (very hard to read!), but someway gets through it.
Though the story is very engaging, I found the delivery a bit hard to follow, with a lot of going back and forth in the timeline.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book jumped around often leaving it hard to follow. I got 30% of the way through and had trouble staying focused or seeing how the plotlines were relative to the overall story. It was very slow and stream of conscious.

I had a hard time following the characters and alternating timelines. It felt more like a reciting of events than threaded together with a theme or cohesive narration. Maybe it is because I don’t know enough about where the author is now?

I became so invested in every back story, character and memory that is Shawna Kay’s memoir, Kin.
I appreciate how in depth and raw the book was. She tells her story in such a way, it’s hard to not feel real feelings for herself and her family. Each word is written with love, loyalty and thoughtfulness for her family’s history albeit the tough, uncomfortable & harsh stories they are.

I read many memoirs and this one stands as one of my favorites.

Unfortunately, I cannot give this book a good rating. I have read several books that deal with similar subjects and I found this one lacking in presenting a case for the author. The writing was confusing and the dateline was difficult for me to follow. I think it would have been a stronger book if the author had made her statement of the problems that she faced near the beginning of the book. I will give her credit for rising above the circumstances of her upbringing.