I've followed Ashley C. Ford for years on Twitter. This was such a delightful and deep look into her life and how her father's time in prison had a lifelong impact on her journey through the world. Ford is a brilliant writer and I know that this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the stories she has to tell.

Ashley Ford's memoir was great. Such a compelling and important read. I would recommend this to anyone interested in a well written, thoughtful memoir.

A moving and emotionally candid memoir. Full review posted at BookBrowse: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/ref/pr274496

I have followed Ashley C. Ford's writing for a few years now, so I knew a bit of her story. I moreso knew the story of her and her father that made her a well-known and regarded writer.

What I particularly found engaging and, even related to, was her childhood. Not the family dynamic, but the feeling of being bad and wrong and wanting to be so good, but always having that feeling of being disappointing. That...is where I personally found the magic of Somebody's Daughter.

Now, I don't want to co-opt Ford's feelings, but I do want to express thanks. Because this is what books can do. Make us feel seen and connected.

Wow wow wow. The way that Ashley C. Ford tells this story is so powerful you honestly just feel like you are listening to one of your closest friends tell you this heart wrenching life story to you! So many pieces of this book are ones that every women has gone through. I also related so much to Ashley as this powerful girl who even through life’s trials and tribulations she continued to stand her ground.

Ashley Ford's memoir is audacious in its honesty. She holds back nothing about the people in her life who have had the most influence over her and her upbringing -- most notably her mother, grandmother, and incarcerated father -- painting fully realized portraits of the cruelties and love that sometimes goes hand in hand in families dealing with a lot of generational trauma. I appreciate her ability to look at herself and others without a filter and I thought her story was one well-written reading. The writing is, mostly, very good, but I struggled a bit with some sloppy construction (there are numerous muddled run-up sentences that I had to read multiple times to parse) and I felt the ending a tad lackluster. Overall, a wonderful, moving memoir deserving of its praise.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

First off this book was really difficult to read. Ashley has had some really challenging events and a lot of them were a little triggering. But her beautiful writing kept me going. So much talent.

Ashley C. Ford had a fraught relationship with her mother growing up, and she couldn’t help but imagine what her life would have been like if her incarcerated father were present. Would he have really understood her, or made her childhood easier? In this coming-of-age memoir, Ford shows incredible grace, vulnerability, and wisdom in exploring her traumatic past and complicated family relationships. Despite all of the pain she experienced, she looks at her life and the people in it with clear eyes and a deep understanding of human fallibility.

Somebody's Daughter is a memoir that pumps its own blood. From its rhythmic language to its subject matter on family, trauma, and identity, it reads like a heartbeat. Facing as much trauma (incarcerated parent, sexual assault, violence, economic hardship) as Ashley C. Ford has in her life, she has managed to channel her experiences and knowledge into an art that is steady, conscious, and lifegiving.

This book is so well done, you won't want to put it down. This is a perfect memoir for book clubs, discussion groups, writers studying structure and craft, and anyone looking to find their own way out of struggle.

Like most childhood memoirs, Somebody's Daughter’s by Ashley C. Ford is complex and full of surprises. Ford can't believe that her family is big enough. Her mother constantly punishes her for being naughty, and though her grandmother is a wonderful person, she also physically abuses her children. She longs for him to be strong and protect her. When puberty hits, she grows ashamed and blames herself. After her first relationship ends, she learns about her father's crime. She eventually realizes that she has to escape. In her memoir, Ford talks about growing up in a family full of anger and violence. She also learns how to live her life with dignity and honor. Thank you, Flatiron Books, for the gifted copy via net galley.

so incredibly impactful and wonderfully written. a read i'll be thinking of for a long time and one that i highly recommend everyone picking up. thank you for the copy netgalley and flatiron!

I loved this book so much that I had to order a copy in hardcover to have in my hands. I needed the heft of the book itself to understand the weight of Ford's words.

This memoir is an incredibly clear-eyed account of growing up in an abusive home with a father gone because he was incarcerated. It doesn't offer neat resolutions to fraught relationships, but it does offer grace to all its subjects, including the author herself. This is a book that will make people who didn't get the love and safety they needed as children feel very seen.

A coming-of-age memoir about growing up a Black girl with an incarcerated father and the path to truly understand and overcome our origins. While Ashley idolized her father she barely knew, her life was shaped by her mother and grandmother. As she ages, she eventually learns why her father is in prison and must reconcile her own identity with her family's past.

Although the book is marketed as Ford's relation with her father, it's really about her relationship with her quick-tempered and emotionally detached mother. Ford is an excellent writer and she does an excellent job convey the emotions and thoughts that influenced her decisions. However, I would have loved for her to consider why her mother and grandmother made the decisions they made.

For me, Somebody's Daughter was just shy of being phenomenal. The pacing was a bit off: Ford delves so much on her experiences as a very young child, then rushes through her college years. Similarly, Ford fails to ponder how her experiences connected to what other women and girls, especially Black girls, face. In all, Somebody's Daughter is an interesting memoir without a memorable message.

Beautiful and moving, but I wish it were twice as long!

I've been a longtime fan of Ashley Ford's work, and her memoir is a poignant reflection on how who you are as child shapes who you are forever. She simultaneously captures her perception of her life as child while also adding what she sees now as an adult. Not sure how to best describe it beyond that it felt like a book full of the best kind of revelations you work through in therapy.

At times I wished there were specific references to months/years to track the timeline and that there was just more! I would've kept reading for sure.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for this review.

In Ford’s memoir we focus on her coming of age and her relationships with her mother, grandmother, and father, who is incarcerated. It’s a book about the ordinary and intimate details of family. Ford life certainly has drama but it is not told to sensationalize or manipulate, it is told because it was lived, which I find to be extremely powerful. SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTER gives other Black women permission to tell their stories.
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The detail in this book is what I most appreciated. You can tell Ford is the kind of person who observes and takes great care to relay the world as she sees it. It’s a gift that she shares with us and it’s what made the book resonate for me. I felt more seen because of the way Ford saw her own world.
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I’ve been reading a lot about prison and the experience of being incarcerated. In SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTER I was given the chance to learn and think more about the effects of incarceration on the children of people who have been locked away. Ford’s father is not the center of this book, but the ways she negotiates that relationship as she gets older and gains understanding was impactful.
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I wished there had been more of the book. The first third is extremely detailed and by the end it felt rushed. Her time in and after college wasn’t nearly as flushed out as earlier sections. I never say this but I could’ve used another 30-40 pages (which is another way of saying I liked this book).

This book was so compelling and I could feel the emotions of the author. The hurt and heartwrenching parts are balanced with hope and heartwarming scenes, and left me longing for more.

Phenomenal writing. The best memoir I’ve read in 2020, and I can’t imagine anything topping it. Ford captures the changing definitions of home throughout one’s life so beautifully.

Somebody's Daughter is an introspective memoir about a young woman learning to accept her personal history. This novel offers the reader to join Ashley C. Ford through some of the most painful aspects of her upbringing growing up with a single mother and an incarcerated father. While traveling through her life history, the reader is easily able to sympathize not only with the disassociation and emptiness experienced by Ford, but also her growth and success. Ford's grief is excruciating to read, but the honest reflections about childhood and maturity are invaluable. Watching Ford grow from being intimated by adulthood due to her family's history to giving voice to her past is one of the most powerful aspects of the book. If you're a fan of memoirs or interested in contemporary coming of age, this book is for you.