Ashley grows up without her father present because he has been incarcerated almost her whole life. They still stay in touch through letters but she finds it’s not the same. She has a complex relationship with her mother and struggles to navigate the ups and downs of her life as she begins to experience anxiety. She is sexually assaulted as an adolescent and grows up trying to recover from her trauma. When she finds out what her father has been incarcerated for, her world is turned upside down and she has to find a way to cope.

I loved the themes in this memoir. There were so many explored: sexuality, familial relationships, poverty, racism, sexual assault, physical abuse and so much more. There was depth in every chapter. Another thing that really stuck out to me was how honest Ford was in writing her own memoir. There was nothing sugar coated or glossed over and it made it more poignant in my opinion. I thought the style of writing was very fluid and interesting as some of the word choices or comparisons really stuck with me. I found it a bit slow in some parts, but overall I enjoyed this one. Ford reads the audiobook herself which is always a nice touch when listening to an audiobook.

I’m so glad my first experience with this book was with the audiobook because it’s done by the author Ashley C. Ford herself and it is beyond excellent. I say first experience because I’ve already bought the book itself for a forthcoming reread.
This memoir is going to be not only on the best of lists for 2021 but for all time. It absolutely will be and it will be absolutely deserving of it.
I finished this book a few days ago and the writing is still on my mind.
Ashley C. Ford has written a phenomenal memoir about her life. It’s incredibly intimate and truthful and you feel the heart and emotion jumping out of the pages.
A special bonus of the audiobook is that at the conclusion of the book there is a conversation between Ashley C. Ford and Clint Smith (How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America-Little, Brown and Company) about their books that were both released on the same day.

The audiobook was generously provided to me by Flatiron Books and NetGalley.

Ashley Ford grew up as a poor Black girl in Indiana missing one piece of her family - her father. He's in prison for an unnamed crime - but when she finds out what that crime is, it's more unsettling than she expected.

Listening to this memoir was gut-wrenching - Ford writes about her experiences honestly and openly, letting the reader feel her emotions. The pain resulting from her absent father and mercurial mother is evident in her words. I enjoyed her narration of the book as it brought me closer to the story. She touches on a number of important issues including race, class, body image, unhealthy relationships, and education. The strongest parts of the book for me were her reunion with her father in prison and her relationship with her grandmother.

One thing I'd like readers to know is that this book is not an examination of the prison system or the crimes of her father - this is above all Ashley's story. I would definitely recommend this one to readers who enjoy memoirs.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing an ALC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ashley C. Ford shares her story, growing up a poor, Black girl in Indiana, separated from her incarcerated father. She describes the difficult relationship with her sometimes physically abusive mother, her struggles growing into her body while dealing with harassment and unwanted attention from men, and the rape she kept secret.

I’ve never read a coming-of-age story that captures the complexity of family quite like this — love, obligation, guilt, loyalty, anger, forgiveness. She bravely shares her truth while writing with such grace about the people who let her down. 

I think many readers, even those with extremely different backgrounds and stories, will find a piece of this memoir that resonates and feels familiar.

I’m so glad Ford read the audiobook. She has a very soothing voice that kept me invested throughout all 8 hours. The bonus conversation between Ford and Clint Smith was also a wonderful surprise.

I didn’t know much about Ford (even though she’s a fellow Hoosier!!) before I listened to her memoir, but I’ll be following her closely in the future. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

I enjoyed this memoir overall. I liked the exploration of the mother/daughter relationship and how that can be straining. I enjoyed how they eventually came to terms with each other. I also liked the discussion on black girls and their bodies. That part hit really close to home for me. Overall, the exploration of the familial relationship and how to love someone and reconcile with the terrible things they've done really had me thinking. Will definitely recommend.

Memoirs have to be one of my favorite genres to read and Ashley C. Ford tells her story and her family’s story with grace and respect for the people and places she’s writing about. At the same time, she holds a critical lens to explore her experiences in what seems to be a way to both heal from and honor the memories.

Although I did not grow up in Indiana, my father's side of the family is from Muncie (where Ball State University is located) and Gary, Indiana. Many of them still live there and pre-COVID pandemic, I visited for "Back to Muncie" where families all come back for grilling and catching up. Driving through Muncie, you can feel the impact that the closing of auto companies had. There's a sense of abandonment and poverty. At the same time, especially during the summer, you can drive slowly through the streets with your window down honking at, nodding at, or even stopping to chat to friendly neighbors. I could picture Ford's upbringing in Fort Wayne and found some similarities between her family and mine.

As the title implies, the heart of this story is Ford as a daughter of a woman with a lot of love and fear that manifests in ways that aren't typical to the "mother" as popular media portrays mothers to be and a father who has been incarcerated for most of Ford's life. Throughout, the memoir, we learn about Ford's sexual assault, finding her voice, and exploring her sexuality. This a stunning and powerful memoir that I hope others enjoy as much as I did.

I loved the concept of this memoir, but I felt it left me wanting more. It was marketed as a story about a daughter growing up with an incarcerated father and their relationship, but I felt that wasn't discussed in depth enough. I felt it was more about her relationship with her mother and finding herself.

Ashley spoke at length about her young childhood experiences at ages I found hard to believe she had so many memories from. I would have liked less about her youth and more about her teen and college years. She glazed over those so quickly.

The novel starts with her finding out her father is getting out of prison, and then we don't revisit that until the very end of the book. I really wanted to learn more about what it was like for her after he was released and how she came to terms with what he did. I felt we received no closure as a reader.

Overall, I'm glad to have read it. It was a nice coming of age story but it left me with more questions than answers.

My favourite audiobooks are ones read by the author and this one is amazing, I love how open and honest Ashley is in processing her past, how much of herself she shares with her listeners, and how she even talks about deciding how much truth to include in her book, and how it would affect the other people in her life and story.

Somebody's Daughter is everything I could hope for in a memoir, a honest, real life look at Ashley's life so far and especially her relationship with her father, who has been in prison for 20 years. As a child she knows very little about him or why he is in prison. As she grows up she receives a lot of unwanted attention and criticism for her body, and as her relationship with her mother deteriorates, she mentally turns to her father and his letters as a source of support, only to have that image shattered by the truth of his situation. I was simultaneously heartbroken and amazed at young Ashley's strength and maturity in dealing with this and the other traumas that occur in her life. I wish I had a copy of the book as well to spend more time with her story, but as I received an early copy of the audiobook from NetGalley, I only read after finishing it that this is Ashley Ford's debut, and found this even more amazing, her voice is strong and accomplished and approachable and I can't wait to see what she will write next. This is definitely a book I would like to have a print copy of as well.

I am always in awe of the people who share their life story with the world in such a raw and honest way. While we all have heartache in our lives, we don't all share that grief so openly with the world.

I completed this one as an audiobook, which is read by the author. (Memoirs are my favorite audiobooks! Total immersion into the story.)

Very well done.

Trigger warnings: rape, abuse

Ashley's memior was gripping and thoughtful. As a queer reader, I wish she spoke more on her queer experiences. As a teacher, I loved how she reflected about her time at school, her teachers, and herself as a student. She made a lot of parallels to education and reading that resonated with me.

A wonderful memoir! Ashley C. Ford's debut is beautifully written. I especially love that she is the narrator of the audiobook. We all discover so much about ourselves throughout the ebbs and flows of life. Ford's highs and lows tell a relatable, memorable story.

This is the first audio book I have ever listened to and I loved the story and the narrator. The voice was perfect for the story and I really enjoyed listening to it. It was captivated from the first chapter to learn more and more about Ashley Ford's life, It is a story that tells of her childhood and how her family, trauma, rape, culture and identity shaped her life. The story is raw, honest and full of hope.

Absolutely loved this memoir, read by the author. Such personal details of difficult points in her life brought to life with stunning descriptors and amazing writing.

Family secrets, trauma, grief, childhood memories, bonds that can't be broken.

Ashley C. Ford is a gorgeous writer and an entrancing speaker. I listened to "Somebody's Daughter" on audiobook and was glued to my speaker.

Everyone has a story, and everyone wishes Ford could tell theirs. She tells her complicated personal journey from childhood to adulthood with grace and poise. No one became the villain. No one was her hero. She simply told the stories. Yet, I found myself rooting for her every triumph and grieving her every tragedy. I found her nighttime worries extremely relatable, if not heartbreaking, and applaud her candid version of anxieties refreshing.

Go along for the ride as Ashley struggles and fights her way to a better understanding of herself.

Ashley Ford is an amazing person and an even more amazing author. She has a grace and vulnerability in her writing that is a pleasure to experience.

This memoir is beautiful, although difficult at times due to the heartbreaking experiences Ashley so masterfully shares. Family shapes and molds us into the people we one day become and this memoir uses those familial connections to show how a person can overcome their past and use the pain and experiences to grow and succeed.

Having Ford read this memoir made this #NetGalley #AudioArc even better in my opinion. Her tone and voice are perfect for delivering her story.

I highly recommend this book! Even if you do not typically read memoirs, you should read this one; you won't be disappointed.

This memoir story by Ashley Ford was an interesting book but personally was not one that I could attach myself to. The childhood anecdotes are very dark and with the continuous dark stories feel very ominous and it was hard to keep going. I understand this was the authors life experience but it was hard to stay interested.

I've got to say, this is one of the most self-aware coming-of-age memoirs I've ever read. What a debut!

Trigger Warning: Rape, physical and mental abuse

Our author, Ashley Ford writes about her childhood and young adulthood in this memoir. She leads a tough life in which her mother and her butt heads constantly, she's trying to survive puberty and her body's changes, and dealing with everyday financial instability. Through this all, she looks up to her father as the truest form of unconditional love in her life even though he's in prison and during much of this book doesn't know why he's there. During all of these struggles, she's also raped by an awful ex-boyfriend and has to learn to reconcile her father's crime with the with the father she loves.

Confession: Y'all know I first noticed this one because of the gorgeous cover. And yes, I'd read half of it before I noticed there was a snake on the front, not just blobs of pretty colors. Facepalm.
Ford is such an incredible writer and is able to describe different ages of her life so thoroughly that it almost convinced me that she wrote those sections years ago as she was living them. Like, who knew anyone could write so eloquently at age 4? But really, she captures the feelings and senses perfectly through her lush descriptions. 

And honestly, I cannot get the parts of this book out of my head in which she talks about the way people commented on her developing body constantly during puberty as if she had done something wrong. It really made me see through her eyes, the terrible way in which young, Black female bodies can be oversexualized by society. I could FEEL the shame she experienced through her raw and vulnerable writing.
I was also continuously impressed by her self-awareness throughout the memoir. Her honesty and the way she can see her own experiences is truly what makes this book so special. It's like she's operating on this higher mental plane than us mere mortals and I love it.

What really touched me through this book were Ford's family members. She wrote them warts and all, but never failed to include their love, which was always there even when it may not have been apparent. There are times when her family was toxic, but throughout this book she blossoms and learns how to love them through her own independence.

Definitely give this one a read if you have a chance.

I am not giving this book a 3 star because it isn’t a wonderful account of a strong woman willing to put herself out there in hopes of sharing her story so others will do the same. I am in no way saying her story is less than others. I’m only giving it a three-star because of the “enjoyment” of reading it and the pacing.

The audiobook is definitely the way to go for this book in many ways. The book is narrated by the author which of course is wonderful for a book like this because they're able to tell their story in the correct way. The author was able to emphasize the correct words to tell the story in the way she wanted it told to begin with. She did wonderful at changing her voice to portray different people in her life. She even added a few giggles and you can tell in her voice the happy moments and could hear the smile in her voice.

One important way that sticks out in my mind of the way she changed her voice was the little joke she and her mother had of calling each other and speaking in a certain way. When narrating these parts of the book she changed her voice in the way that they would in reality have spoken to each other. It made me more engaged in the story because I felt like I had a behind-the-scenes knowledge of her life with her mother. I think this was also important to add because even though she did have a hard life living with her mother and the abuse she experienced from her it does show that once she got older their relationship wasn't dissolved they still had their moments of closeness.

The audiobook at the end also includes an interview with the author. This interview had a profound impact on the way that I now think about her story and I understand more about her and her writing process and the background of the book that I would never have known from just reading the book. It shows us the journey she took into excepting her experience and having the courage to share what she went through. Her story I'm sure we'll reach so many different people's hearts especially people who have gone through similar situations like she has.

One thing I appreciated about the way that this book was organized is that each chapter moves on to a different situation in her life. This made it easy to follow along with the book because I knew that once a new chapter had started that we would move on to a different topic and I'd be able to focus on just that situation and not have to combine that with all the other information that I had already read.

Even though the plot of the book is supposed to be focused on the sexual abuse she experienced and the incarceration of her father this plot is a little deceptive. The book does include these topics but it does not make up the book. Before listening to her interview I would have put this as a fault on the book because her father and her experience with him being in prison doesn't really come up a lot in the book. The main core of the book is just her experiences and another major part of the book was the way she was treated by her mother. Now I know after listening to the author's expressions that she did this on purpose, and now I know how hard it was for her to put herself out in the open and not make this book all about her father but to let herself tell her story. I also appreciate that she doesn't sugarcoat what she experienced. She is honest and I think that the way she wrote it will be able to help a lot of people and stir emotions in the reader.

And even though I'm not a black woman I think this book could definitely help a lot of women because it expresses the concern I think a lot of women might have about keeping themselves protected from the dangers that might come. I think she did well at balancing the good imp and bad parts of her mother. I definitely think her mother was abusive and so it must have taken a lot of courage knowing that her mother might read this story.

I'm not really going to put the faults of the book because I don't want to demenish her story but I just found the book lacking in some ways and not as engaging as it could be but overall it was a good memoir that might be a favorite for some.

TW: Abuse, Rape

SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER is a very good memoir.

Ford writes about her coming of age, recounting poverty, abuse, and having a father in prison for decades. I can still feel visceral anger for some of the cruelty she endured. Throughout, she does a great job putting her experiences and feelings into words. I won't give the details so as not to spoil any content, but there's one description in particular that will stick with me for years to come.

At times, the narrative seemed to meander (and so sometimes it was difficult to put the book down and pick it back up again -- I'd have to reread the past few pages to grasp the narrative thread again). I'm not sure if that's simply Ford's style or if it's something that should have been better structured during the editing process. Honestly it only bothered me because I didn't want to miss a single word.

The audiobook is narrated by the author and is well done. It was a treat to hear these words in Ford's voice.

Reviewing
Somebody’s Daughter
Ashley C. Ford

I was overwhelmed with so many emotions while reading Ashley Ford’s coming of age, no holds bar, memoir that it took me a few days to fully process.

Readers will feel like family with Fords pragmatic portraits of her Mother, Grandmother, Uncle, Father, and countless other influential characters throughout the book. As Ashley is struggling to define her relationship with Mom, growing up with an absent and incarcerated Father, falling for her first boyfriend who becomes abusive, and learning to love and accept the woman she is becoming.

Her unflinching honesty, poetic writing, and illuminating discoveries will give readers pause to reflect on who they are today and the people in their past that have brought them to where they are now. Somebody’s Daughter is bound to top the memoir charts of 2021.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 heartfelt stars for this emotional and enlightening look at one woman’s rocky road to finding self