I couldn't finish this book. I feel guilty for saying that but I read 25% of it and just wasn't interested.

Thank you Netgalley!! I finished and loved it. What a dishy kind of book. It's about a small neighborhood where people are friendly but they keep to themselves. Until they don't. Essie has 2 kids and she's going through some stuff. Like not being able to handle it all. (And her mum is there to help but Barbara isn't without a past.) She has a great husband but he's working all the time. Then there's Ange who has a husband, Lucas who's seemingly great but has a wondering eye. And Fran who might have had an affair behind her depressed husband Nigel's back.
Then Isabelle moves in. She doesn't have a husband or kids so immediately they neighborhood is wondering why she chose the area.
I got sucked in to each family's story. It's told in different viewpoints and I loved the soap opera like quality of drama. Each family has kids. There are key issues that keep you turning the page.
I know it's not "high brow" lit but this is the first book in a while that excited me about reading again. I have read most of Hepworth's novels and loved each one.

Fabulous book. Thoroughly loved. Highly recommend!

The Only Girl in the World
A Memoir
by Maude Julien
Little, Brown and Company

Biographies & Memoirs
Pub Date 12 Dec 2017


I am reviewing a copy of The Only Girl in the World through Little Brown Company and Netgalley:


Maude spent much of her early life imprisoned by her brutal and fanatic family. Her Mother never even touches her, for even a kiss, no matter what. And she expects perfection from her daughter as does her Father.


Everyday she has lessons in music and manual labor, her Father even teaches her to crack safe's.


Maude's Father makes her do things like lean over a cliff to toughen her up.


Laughter is frowned upon, she's forced to sleep in an icy room, and she is forced to drink from a young age, because her Father believed it made her stronger.


Her childhood abuse had a huge impact on her adult life, the alcohol she had been forced to drink damaged her liver, but the emotional damage was the hardest.


I give The Only Girl in the World five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

Memoirs are outside of my general reading zone because I usually find it hard to connect with the author's personal story, but this book was engaging from the first page. I was in awe of the author's resilience and mental strength, and inspired by her ability to survive and overcome her horrific past. I am not a crier when it comes to reading books, but this memoir made me tear up several times.

While reading this book I had to glance at the cover frequently to check if it was a true story. The abuse the author went through is horrifying. I was so impressed that through all the abuse she endured, she has become an intelligent and well adjusted individual....I think. I was left feeling let down at the end of the story because she did not clue us in to how the story ends or rather her life beyond her parents mistreatment.

This disturbing memoir is set in Northern France circa 1960s. It follows the isolated childhood of the author, now a psychotherapist. Her lunatic father kept her shut off from the world, living on a walled estate alongside her hateful mother. Maude's only joys were her pets, music and reading. She perseveres, though, so this is ultimately a story of resilience. It is being compared to The Glass Castle but I'm not buying it -- the parents in The Glass Castle were flawed no doubt, but the parents here are irredeemable.

I read a lot of books. I’ve read books so disturbing and gory, it even makes me question myself. However, The Only Girl in the World really got to me. Maude Julien is a woman who was raised by two crazy parents. Parents who believed they were raising her to be the ultimate human - someone who could survive anything.

It started with her father. He took in her mother at age 6 from her parents, saying that he would provide her a good life and educate her. But what he was really doing was raising her to be his wife. The perfect wife and mother for the child he wanted to have. Maude was born in 1957.

He wants to raise Maude to be a superior being. In order to be a superior being she must be ready for anything. She is not shown any love or affection, for that would be a weakness. She is forced to endure character building atrocities, like holding on to an electric fence and spending the night alone in a cellar meditating on death.

This book is so depressing. She tells her life story in a flat, matter of fact, monotone, which is probably the only way she could cope. I found it extremely difficult to read, and if you are sensitive to animal abuse, that’s in here too.

I realize that probably part of her healing was telling this story, but honestly, it was just not for me.

I received an ARC of this book.

This book was such an interesting read. I had to keep reminding myself that it was a memoir not a horror story. I imagine the author could fill another 5 books with details of her childhood and her adult journey. Which is a credit to her ability to portray 15 years of her life without drowning us in minutia. While there are times that I wished I knew more information (like her dad's full back story) the book was the perfect length to keep the reader intrigued. Its hard to say I enjoyed the book because the subject matter is so horrible. But I was captivated and recommend it highly to those who appreciate a well-written and worthy memoir.

Julien's memoir is truly heartbreaking. Her raw account of the strange and abusive home she lived in throughout her childhood will stick with readers long after they've put her story down. The resolution of the memoir felt slightly unfinished as the author never discusses what het father suffered from, and I found myself trying to research afterwards to get more information.

THE ONLY GIRL IN THE WORLD: A MEMOIR is a powerful true story I choose to see as a triumph of the human spirit.

Maude's father wanted a superhuman child and set out with single minded purpose to achieve his goal. He found a young girl and adopted her. When she was old enough he married and impregnated her. When his daughter was born her training began.

I'm not going to go into everything Maude went through, because it's grim. Extremely grim. Also, a lot of what she went through might not seem believable at first. As I was reading though, I realized that Maude's story is altogether too possible. What a scary and depressing thought: to have every aspect of your life controlled. To have to hold a chamber pot for your father. To have any family pets used as objects to control you. The only good things in Maude's life were books and music-and even those were controlled by her father.

To be clear this book never descended into the area of torture porn. Everything is presented in a rather detached way, whereas you are just an observer. The things that happened were indeed horrific, but you never felt like you were a part of them. Instead, your heart just ached that these things ever happened.

An interesting component to this story was the pop psychology theories the father would come up with and how he used them to devise mind controlling techniques. Seriously, I think this guy could have developed a cult of his own if he wasn't so lazy and stupid. His family were actual blood relations and unlike Manson's family could never have left even if they tried. If you can imagine what Manson could have done to a daughter, you have a good idea of what Maude's dad did to her.

I can't get into what happened to Maude in the end, because that would ruin everything. However, she did survive to write this book so that should tell you something.

Highly recommended, especially for those interested in the psychology of brainwashing.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*

This is a difficult memoir to read because the abuse that the author endured for 18 years is gut wrenching. However, it is well worth the discomfort. Julien’s story is ultimately one of hope and unbelievable resilience. Julien’s father was a paranoid megalomaniac who believed that he was raising his daughter to be superhuman and ultimately save the world. In order to do this, she was subjected to bizarre endurance tests such as holding on to an electric fence without reacting and spending a day each month in a dark cellar teeming with rats. That Julien survived at all is amazing. That she went on to become a renowned psychotherapist is truly remarkable. This book will appeal to fans of The Glass Castle, Running with Scissors and The Sound of Gravel.

Maude Julien survived horrific child abuse at the hands of her father. Some of the descriptions were difficult to read and I can't imagine living through them!

***** I give this Book a Five Star Review. I would recommend this Book. Thanks NetGalley.

The Only Girl in the World by Maude Julien is a highly recommended memoir about a woman's abusive childhood - and her escape.

This is not an easy memoir to read because of the abuse and the family situation is so bizarre. Maude Julien's parents were fanatics and the torture she experienced under their supervision was supposedly done to strengthen her. Her father got her mother at around age 6 from her parents, promising to educate her. He then raised and groomed her mother to eventually be his wife and help him raise a superior being. Maude was born from this odd union in 1957.

Her father was many things. He had a megalomaniac personality. He was paranoid, narcissistic, cruel, abusive, and a conspiracy theorist. He believed he was "a Grand Master of Freemasonry and a great knight of a secret order." He designed the education and cruel tasks Maude had to do and his wife helped him carry his plans out. Their duty, mother and daughter, was to do his bidding. He was controlling and a master of psychological indoctrination.

Maude is never shown any love or tenderness. The abusive things Maude was forced to do in order to strengthen her character are painful to read about. She has to sit still in a dark rat-infested cellar overnight. She had to hold on to an electric fence without flinching. She had to bathe in cold, dirty bath water. The amount of sleep she had was strictly limited. The animals, the only ones who gave Maude affection and that she loved, were all abused. Both Maude and her horse were forced to drink alcohol. Maude was forced to eat food in huge chunks and only given stale bread to eat. They ignored her being sexually abused by their handyman. Maude finally escapes when she is allowed to take a train to Dunkirk to study music and she realizes she can escape.

The recounting of the abuse is relentless and matter-of-fact as she recounts her daily existence and the abuse she was experiencing at the hands of her parents, although it was her father who was in charge. There isn't a lot of reflection or analysis by Maude as she relates what she had to endure and at times it feels just too unflinching in the recounting of the horror. Although it might have been nice to read about her childhood from the viewpoint of the adult and psychotherapist that she is today, it is at least gratifying to know that she did escape. It is also satisfying to know that an outsider, a music teacher, assessed what was going on and put a plan into action that would eventually help Maude escape her insane, controlling father. While this is a dark story that she needed to tell, it is not really inspirational, except in the fact that she does survive and overcomes her abusive background.
Be forewarned that there are triggers in this book for those who have experienced physical or sexual abuse and self-harming. There is animal abuse.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Little, Brown and Company.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/12/the-only-girl-in-world.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2210131273
https://www.librarything.com/work/15754285/reviews/148997618
https://www.facebook.com/shetreadssoftly/

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Little, Brown & Company, and Maude Julien for the opportunity to read and review this book.

It's always tough to review a memoir filled with such horrid child abuse. And this story defies belief in what parents can do to their children.

The horror begins when Maude's father contracts with a poor family to basically raise one of their daughters in exchange for them never contacting the daughter again. Her father, Louis, was 34 at the time and her mother, Jeannine, was 6. He gave her the best boarding school education and then brought her back to give birth to their daughter, who they would raise to be a super human.

The tortures that Maude was subjected to in order to make her the perfect human were unbelievable - hard labor, locked in a dark cellar, never going out of the house, insane studying and musical practice lessons - it just goes on and on. Her mother was just as controlled by her father but she never displayed any caring for her child. That she couldn't stop any of the abuse of Maude is a sin in itself. Somehow, Maude built enough walls in her head that she was able to come out on the other side of this evil world she was raised in.

I would have loved a bit more explanation about her life once she escaped - it went very suddenly to life afterwards without much in between. Although I'm sure she is very protective of her privacy.

Hard to read but an amazing memoir.

I couldn't finish this book, it was too dark and depressing. I really felt sad for Maude, but I found it too difficult to read about the mental and physical abuse her father put her through. I'm very sorry.

A truly harrowing story that you won't believe is actually true. I would have liked more detail on what happened to Maude's mother and would love to hear her side.

Going into this book, I couldn't remember off the top of my head whether The Only Girl in the World was a memoir or simply a work of fiction. I was ever hopeful it was fiction. The first fifty pages or so draw readers in and is quite intriguing. It's when readers find out that that terrible treatment takes place throughout ninety-nine percent of the book that it starts to put readers in a "Do I want to finish this book?" slump. As a reader of upsetting memoirs like A Child Called It, Cupcake Brown, and Etched in Sand, the thread that ties them all together is hope. Someone or something got them out of the lives they were living; that redemptive and in my mind necessary, part of those memoirs barely appears in Julien's memoir at all. Not to comment on her life situation, but I think the book would be more balanced if it was split into an early life and a "post" family life.