Rachel Louise Snyder's previous book NO VISIBLE BRUISES is one that stuck with me for a long time. I don't often hold onto books I've read, but that one has a permanent spot on my bookshelf. So when I saw she had a memoir coming out, I was immensely curious. WOMEN WE BURIED, WOMEN WE BURNED is a gritty, honest, and moving memoir. It was hard to put down, though parts of it could have benefitted from more editing. Snyder's voice is smart, thoughtful, and razor-sharp. I love her work and I enjoyed this book.

*Audiobook*

Rachel Snyder’s mother died of cancer when she was eight, and from there her youth is filled with turmoil. At the beginning of the book she claims, “Cancer took my mother, but religion would take my life.” This is a powerful statement that reflects her father’s strict evangelical beliefs and parenting style. She is expelled from school and kicked out of her house by 16, though she is able to make an amazing turn around and live a successful life as a journalist living abroad.

Snyder has an interesting life, from being a troubled teen to being a booker for heavy metal bands to studying and traveling abroad. She faced many traumatic experiences that are told in a very matter-of-fact way. She isn’t overly emotional, though she does reflect on the ways in which her father let her down and how becoming a parent revealed to her just how inexcusable her father’s actions were. I liked the first half of the book, but it faltered for me in the second half. I was most compelled by her youth. She was a troubled teen who saw no future or hope for herself, yet she was able to go from being a high school expellee to traveling the world as a journalist. That struggle and transition was glazed over. In one chapter she’s couch surfing anywhere she can, then the next she has her GED, then she’s in college studying abroad, then she’s a journalist. It felt very disjointed, and the summary of the book didn’t match my expectations. The book doesn’t really touch on her journalism at all, focusing instead on her time abroad where she got married and had a child before moving back to the United States. She does discuss some of what she was investigating at the time, but not nearly as much as the summary would lead you to believe. I always appreciate hearing the author read their own memoirs, and I enjoyed the narration. The second half of the story wasn’t particularly interesting to me, though I do think she has a life story others would find worth reading. Thank you to NetGalley, High Bridge Audio, and Rachel Louise Snyder for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to HighBridge Audio and Netgalley for this audio ARC!

This is the memoir of Rachel Louise Snyder, a journalist, writer, and professor who covers difficult topics such as domestic violence and human rights violations. She has spent much of her life living abroad and has worked as an international correspondent.

This is a very difficult book to review. The blurb of this book makes it appear as if this book will be approximately 50% her upbringing and 50% her life as an international correspondent, though this is not the case. The first 70% of this memoir takes place in the United States. Snyder's international work is what drew me into this memoir, but Snyder's writing and story was so engrossing that I was not upset by this. However, I almost think Snyder could have written two memoirs, one of her youth and one of her life as a correspondent.

This memoir, sadly, has numerous content warnings. Snyder tells her life story exactly as it was, including the horrible details such as sexual assault, physical abuse, and child homelessness. Snyder does not include any unnecessary details, and she writes these topics well. This book starts almost immediately with parental death, and as someone who lost a parent at a young age, this was the hardest part to listen to but I also felt comforted in hearing my own experience read to me.

Snyder's voice - both written and verbal - is mesmerizing and heartfelt. I truly felt for this girl (now woman) that had to grow up in such difficult situations, and Snyder does a great job of examining her past as she tells it. I would really recommend this audio to anyone who enjoys memoirs,

Beautifully written and narrated by the author, this memoir is equal parts heartbreaking and hopeful. Raised in a fundamentalist Christian household after the death of her Jewish mother, Rachel struggles to thrive under the thumb of relentless patriarchy and religion. A runaway and a high-school dropout, we follow Rachel through the darkest of days to the point where someone decides to take a chance on her and she enrolls in college on academic probation. The second half of the book follows her life abroad, first as a student on semester at sea, then as a correspondent, journalist and expat, ending with her reconnection with her stepmother, who is dying from cancer. I would have liked to hear more about her time abroad and journalistic work, and I think there was space here for more acknowledgement of the white privilege that surely was at play in pulling her out of the trajectory her life was in as a teenager. However, this was still an eye-opening and impactful memoir. 4.5 stars, rounded up for Goodreads.

Pub Date: 6/13/23
Review Date: 6/20/23
Advance Listening Copy received from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest reiview.

A heartbreaking and captivating memoir of a girl who lost her mother to cancer and her father to a cult-like evangelical religion and her path towards adulthood. I was amazed by Snyder's life journey, from being kicked out of her home at 16 to traveling the world as a reporter covering domestic violence. I loved hearing her reflection on family when she had her own daughter - how she would no longer make excuses for her parents' behaviors after having a child of her own. I think she wrote really well about the strained relationship she has with her family. This was a fantastic story of personal growth, but please check trigger warnings before picking it up!

Thank you Netgalley for providing a digital ARC.

I love reading memoirs, especially memoir audiobooks. Bonus points if they're narrated by the author!

When I read the synopsis of Women We Buried, Women We Burned, I knew I'd need to read it. I was very intrigued. And I was more intrigued as I kept reading. I admired the author's ability to tell her story, without holding back any of the painful details. I resonated with her strained parental relationship and the complexities that come along with that. And that feeling of leaving your hometown for a better life. This is memoir I'd definitely recommend!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the gift audiobook!

First, it's really hard to rate someone's life story, whether it be in their own words, or written by someone telling us about the individual. This is Rachel's story, told in her own words, and written from her perspective of growing up, losing her mother to cancer, which she didn't even know her mom had cancer until years later. The grieving process within her family and new additions of a stepmother and step-kids, as well as religion that is anything but kind and loving and instead is used as a weapon against the kids, and Rachel's own rebellion coming out in such a way that she ends up being kicked out at 16 years old, and what is a child supposed to do in a grown up world?
Well...fake it til you make it, and that's basically what Rachel did. She stepped out into a world that she navigated by sheer endurance that it's amazing that she ended up where she did. Her story, and her life, is literally all over the map. She's had an interesting journey that in trying to write it all down in this memoir, you feel like you just want to hear more about what it feels like she glossed over. I think I was expecting more stories of 'women we buried, women we burned' and didn't quite realize that it's really about Rachel, her mother, her stepmother, and her daughter.
I also listed to the audiobook read by Rachel herself, and it was easy to listen to, and gave the memoir more authenticity as you really do hear her story in her own words. Well done!
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

4.5/5

It feels so strange to review the story of someone’s life, but this tale of Rachel’s loss, her challenged teenage life, her parents religious convictions and how that shaped her to view and write about the trauma women experience around the world enthralled me. If you’re interested in how people find their paths, how they find peace and purpose and how our lives hinge on moments of luck you’ll enjoy this read.

It will definitely piss you off about how women are collectively held away from their power.

I have posted my book review here: https://www.netgalley.com/book/270134/review/679839

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 9 hrs 48 minutes, is read by the author herself. I am not usually a fan of authors reading their own works, but in this case, the author does a great job. If the content interests you, the audiobook is a great way of experiencing this memoir.

3.5 stars, rounding up for the audio version.

My thanks to NetGalley, Bloomsbury USA for the DRC, and HighBridge Audio for the ALC of “Women We Buried, Women We Burned”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Content warnings: Drug abuse, alcohol abuse, rape, casual sex, domestic violence, physical punishment.

This is a powerful and well-written memoir, well-narrated by the author herself. Snyder articulates well her life as a troubled child and teen, from a troubled and fraught household. Despite her many bad decisions, due to ignorance, naivete, carelessness, self-loathing, and anger, she rises above and grows out of this to become a person who does much for others. Truly a book that I didn't want to turn off or put down. A powerful writer.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance audiobook copy of Women We Buried, Women We Burned by Rachel Louise Snyder in exchange for an honest review. This was an amazing book about the strength and fortitude of women.

This memoir depicts the author's troubled upbringing after her mother dies and her father remarries. Her mother was Jewish and her father Christian. While her mother was alive, Rachel and her brother David were exposed to both religions. Once her mother died and her father remarried, he became evangelical and ruled the family with a bible and a belt. Rachel was eventually kicked out of high school for non attendance and troublemaking and then kicked out of her home for not following the rules. She cobbled together her survival with friends couches and as many jobs as she could handle. Her resilience and tenacity was fierce. Finally, a boyfriend talked her into college and she blossomed into a journalist. Her beat became the world and she lived in Cambodia for 5 years. She had a cursory relationship with her father and stepmom but once she became a mother, saw her history through an adult's eyes. This is a great story and gives you a world's view of the treatment of women.

The audio is excellent and narrated by the author. Many thanks to NetGalley and High Bridge audio for this copy.

I love this. I loved it as a book and I love it as an audiobook. What a wonderful gift to all of us.
I highly recommend this one.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review.

I was appreciative of Snyder's courage to share her story of a very difficult childhood upbringing and how she persevered. Her voice is strong, and her text is inspirational.

Investigative journalist and award-winning author Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us delivers a powerful emotional, must-read memoir, WOMEN WE BURIED, WOMEN WE BURNED.

Compelling, heartbreaking, wrenching, gripping, propulsive, and disturbing.

An impressive bio, Snyder is an award-winning global journalist. She has traveled to sixty countries over the past two decades, covering human rights, gender-based violence, natural disasters, displacement, and war stories.

Hauntingly beautiful, told with compassion and insight, and written with stunning lyrical prose, the author shares her story, an intimate, raw, honest account of her childhood to adulthood.

A coming-of-age narrative of grief, domestic abuse, neglect, betrayal, religion, and the cult-like environment—overcoming tragedy to hope. A story of a young woman against all odds.

Heartwrenching to lose her mother at the very young age of 8; she has no role models. Raised by a father obsessed with a strict Evangelical religion-like cult environment (violence, control), nonsupportive, and then a stepfamily. Her dad loses all the money her mom left her. She is lost. He is driving her away to live on her own, alone. All the adults have failed her.

She grew up learning there was nothing but danger and darkness in the world, made to be fearful. This is quite true and common as children are raised in religious environments, instilling fear, thinking this will make the child stay on the straight and narrow.

"And once I got out into that world, I didn't find that to be true at all. It was my first real lesson in how wrong the worldview of my parents was because it was informed by their own ignorance."

At 16, her father and stepmother informed Snyder, her older brother, and her two older stepsiblings that they were no longer welcome in their suburban Chicago home. During the 1890s, she and her siblings were forced to submit to a strict evangelical upbringing with pain and physical punishment.

"Cancer took my mother, but religion took my life."

She had already been expelled from the high school she had barely attended, obtaining a G.P.A. of 0.467. From numerous jobs as a troubled homeless teen and having to leave school to support herself and survive. She lived out of her car for the next year and a half, sleeping on couches and floors.

She eventually attained her G.E.D. and went to college and graduate school; a generous uncle helped her spend a semester at sea, where she explored an entirely new world and outlook, more prominent than the strict confines of her childhood.

For six years, she was a journalist based in Cambodia. She fell in love and had a daughter while living abroad, finding support from friends.

Tenacious and courageous, she gets her education and makes her mark in the world, climbing her way out of the past, traveling the world, motherhood, to a globally recognized journalist

She is a survivor and will fight against all obstacles. She possessed great reliance and strength with heart and forgiveness for those who failed her. Decades later, summoned by her father, her stepmother is dying from colon cancer, and she goes to her side, caring for her, which is quite emotional.

Ultimately, she invites us into a brave and loving space of forgiveness. A memoir of courage and self-invention. A story she carried for more than four decades.

You will be touched and moved, thinking of the memoir long after it ends. Powerful. Moving. Unforgettable. Astounding. Superb! Thank you for sharing.

Women We Buried, Women We Burned touches on family, religion, illness, violence, abuse, motherhood, grief, loss, hope, and redemption.

AUDIOBOOK: I highly recommend the audiobook narrated by the author. Inspiring. emotional, and powerful! The writing is spellbinding. Thought-provoking, a must-read memoir!

For fans of Tara Westover's Educated and Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Women We Buried, Women We Burned is Snyder’s fourth book. She is the author of No Visible Bruises (2019), a book about domestic violence that was described as “extraordinary,” “gripping,” and “essential” by reviewers and named a best book of 2019 by the Los Angeles Times, Esquire, Kirkus, and The New York Times. She is also the author of Fugitive Denim (2009) about the global fashion industry and the novel What We’ve Lost is Nothing (2020).

Thanks to #HighbridgeAudio for a gifted ALC via #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Highly recommend the audio for an engaging performance and listening experience.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: June 13, 2023
My Rating: 5 🌟STARS
June 2023 Must-Read Books

Snyder begins with the death of her mother and then tells how things went from normal to abusive in her household. I found the first 50% sad and interesting because she explains how her father turns into this evangelical christian and completely flips Snyder's life upside down. I felt like the part of the book that explained growing up and trying to survive was so well-written and I was very engaged.

The rest of the book just dragged so much. It is hard to review a book that is someone explaining their life, but yeah. At some points I felt like I was learning a lot and then the next second things were not getting explained.

Overall I enjoyed learning about Synder's life. The Audiobook was a big part of my engagement. I was pulled in a lot.

4 stars

This is a gripping memoir that catalogues - in an engaging and well-paced manner - the experiences of its author. I was fortunate to listen to the audiobook, and the author's narration of her own story, of course, adds another layer of personalization and vulnerability. I strongly recommend this version when and where accessible.

Snyder takes readers on a challenging and authentic feeling journey through her traumas and triumphs, beginning with her mother's death from breast cancer when Snyder was a young girl. As any reader can imagine, the loss of her mother haunts Snyder throughout her life, and this was one of my favorite running themes: her frequent consideration of how things might have been different in certain situations, how her mother might have prepared her, and especially the ways in which she finds an element of closure.

In addition to her mother's death, Snyder experiences many other traumas that readers sensitive to information on child abuse, sexual assault, and rape should be particularly attuned to in advance of their reading or listening journeys.

Snyder takes readers through her past, through multiple countries, and through lives and deaths, all in an effort to come full circle, which she accomplishes expertly. Fans of memoirs should definitely queue this one (after reviewing all related TWs and CWs).

Thanks to #Netgalley for the ARC audiobook.

In the same vein as "Educated" and "The Glass Castle," Rachel Louise Snyder tells her story of losing her mother to breast cancer at a young age and then being raised in an abusive, evangelical christian household - the tyrannically religious father who beat her and the stepmom who stood back and did nothing to stop it. The first 2/3 of the book covers her life from early childhood to teen years, culminating in her unhoming. This section was excellent and moving and so well-written.

The last 1/3 covered her education and adulthood and travels to other countries, mainly Cambodia. I feel like this section read (listened) more like an investigative journalist piece in places and was just a bit clunky when compared to the first 70% of the book. Also, her life isn't mine, but <spoiler> I was pissed off at the end when she still has a relationship with her dad and stepmom. I could never forgive people if they did to me what happened to her as a child. </spoiler>

Overall, an engaging and moving read/listen. 4.25/5 stars.

I am so thankful to Rachel Louise Snyder, Netgalley, Bloomsbury Publishing, and Highbridge Audio. Women We Buried, Women We Burned is a terrifyingly honest depiction of women in the prison system, poorly treated and handled in the sentence that is the rest of their life.