I wanted to like this book, but instead I kept searching for a storyline that would hold it together. In the end I gave up on that endeavor, but it was long before the end of the book.

A memoir needs a central theme that holds it together and keeps the author and the reader focused. We were all invested in Tara Westover's education, for example, and we knew that from the beginning. It kept the story cohesive and kept us all focused on something other than simply "escape."

I felt as if the author of this one got caught up in recollection without trajectory.

I am aware that I read a pre-pub, so I sincerely hope that there is an intense editing process ahead to make this what it has the potential of being.

This was one that will stay with me for a very long time. I love mixing up my reading with a Memoir, this was slightly heavy at times but overall it just made me want to hug these characters. Such an inspiring read.

Between Two Trailers tells author J. Dana Trent’s story of growing up with mentally ill parents who loved her the best they could, and how childhood trauma led to survival strategies that served her until they didn’t. Despite knowing what the book was about based on its description, I was surprised from the earliest pages—and couldn’t stop reading. I expected a memoir that described past events and found meaning in them through the lens of who the author is now. Instead, the author somehow manages to capture the perspective of her child-self and tell her story in a way that feels like it is happening in real time. Her adult insights do not intrude on or manipulate what happened in the past. Instead, she honors a past no child should experience because it formed the person she is. The past can’t be changed, mental illness isn’t always treatable, everyone is flawed, often deeply. Trent admits and finds a way to live with these truths while also showing it is possible to move towards healing and wholeness.

Although she touches on her adult journey at the end, Between Two Trailers is not the story of how Trent overcame obstacles or succeeded against the odds. It is simply the story of the people and circumstances that shaped her, a story of obstacles that were her real life, not plot points. Reading some of the stories from her early childhood—as well as her college years and twenties—it is shocking at times (in a good way) to sense the genuine gratitude and love she feels towards people it would be easy to condemn. At least as shocking is the honesty with which she shares her story. She lets the reader know it is okay to reveal parts of ourselves that feel dark, shameful, or different, and, in doing so, we can allow more tender, hopeful parts to emerge. In 2019 I read her book, One Breath at a Time: A Skeptic's Guide to Christian Meditation, which is about as different as the title sounds, and yet I now understand much of her life was spent holding her breath, longing for the freedom she eventually discovered was possible. I’m glad she shared the story that made her who she is, and I’m glad that isn’t her whole story.

Thank you to the author, J. Dana Trent, publisher, Convergent, and NetGalley for the privilege of reading a DRC of this book. All opinions are my own. Planning to pre-order a print copy before the 4/16/24 publication date!

A good read. You can leave behind your family & your hometown but deep down the people who raised you are engrained in you. This book reiterates that.

Between Two Trailers, A Memoir’ written by J. Dana Trent, is a memoir about forgiveness, loss, addiction, trauma, and coming home to the rural Midwest. It follows a young girl raised by a schizophrenic drug dealer father who is also a cult leader and a mother with personality disorders. This is a memoir of the hard ships of having two mentally ill parents.

This debut memoir is excellently written and short. I am glad the author was able to heal from her past that was riddled with trauma. The writing at times could be a little choppy and repetitive, through overall such a good book!
Rating a memoir is hard. Everyone's story deserves a voice, and who is anyone to judge that.
Thank you to NetGalley and Convergent Books for an advanced copy of Between Two Trailers for review. All opinions are my own.

J. Dana Trent is a graduate of Duke Divinity School and an “ordained minister of the Baptist tradition. I commend her for these accomplishments, because her life, as described in this first person account was a horrible nightmare.

This book is hard to read, it’s basically a stream-of consciousness narrative that describes her miserable and cruel childhood in excruciating detail. No child should have suffered like this. This books is heart-rending and not helpful to read.

I received and advance review copy from NetGalley. This is my honest review.

Maybe there was too much hype for this book. This memoir intricately details the author's unbelievable childhood, vividly revealing family history. However, as the narrative transitions to adulthood, a noticeable gap in explanation emerges. A sudden relocation dominates a significant portion of the book without adequate preamble, leaving readers questioning the motives. The writing falters in exploring experiences, creating an incomplete minefield post-adulthood. The abruptness surrounding marriage, departure from family, and subsequent deaths is unsatisfying, and the chapters are incomplete. This reader wanted more and felt deprived of crucial details that would have enriched the overall narrative.

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

Wow! I really enjoyed this read! Was hard to imagine all that this woman has gone through, particularly as a child living with two parents struggling with their mental health. Dana, grew up accompanying her father, "The King" on drug deals and learning survival tips. Meanwhile, her mother, "The Lady" spent her time in her bed nest of the trailer, rarely leaving. At the time Dana idolized the King and the time they spent together. Eventually The Lady opts to leave the situation and goes back to her home state to start fresh. Dana struggles with this concept and longs for her old life. The chapters then illustrate how she navigates her education, visiting family, caring for her dependent mother and ultimately ending up at Duke for her masters degree. She has lived a remarkable life and has ended up with an amazing husband and family.

Between Two Trailers is an interesting look at the author's life. Unfortunately, it felt very repetitive which made it hard to engage entirely.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC for an honest review.

Poignant and raw. I felt the author's emotions and turmoil through vivid descriptions. Truly a portrait of redemption and love.

From the first page, this compulsively readable memoir stands out for the author's recounting of father-daughter drug deals and other menace-laced adventures from the author's childhood. Yet as the memoir progresses, it becomes clear that this is book is no simple Hoosier Gothic. The triumph of this book is the honest, sympathetic portrait the author paints of her flawed parents, the Lady and the King. This is a story of poverty and mental illness, and also a testament to the value of place and family.

Absolutely fantastic book! This memoir follows Dana, beginning with her earliest memories of her father making her separate marijuana seeds and stems and cutting cocaine with razor blades at four years old, to dealing with her childhood trauma in college, and eventually, in her forties, learning to understand her parents behavior and mental health. It’s a true inspiration for someone with such a hard childhood to overcome everything that has happened to become the person she is today. I was fortunate to receive this novel from Netgalley as an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited to read "Between Two Trailers" and wanted to like it, but the book fell flat for me. I think that the writing was not strong enough to carry the story, and I found it hard to read through to the end. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Between Two Trailers is a memoir written by the author, better known as Budgie, written about her young life. Budgie lives her early years with both her parents, who met each other while residents of a mental health facility. They both struggle in different ways, and this leads to interesting experiences for Budgie. At different times in her life she helped pack drugs, partook in midnight bike rides, and experienced homelessness after the separation of her parents. But as she grows, she recognizes the people in her life who care for and love her, despite how they might sometimes show it. I greatly enjoyed this book, and would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Trent's memoir is an open and honest, yet compassionate, memoir of growing up as the child of parents with mental illness and addiction in flyover country. She often lived in poverty, in dilapidated trailers or small apartments, and often left responsible for the emotional needs of her parents. She was exposed to danger and violence and neglected in many ways. Despite all of these challenges, she clearly has great love for her family and extended family and writes without bitterness or anger. As an adult, Trent became a minister (which I did not know prior to reading the book) but she never preaches or writes in a sanctimonious manner. Trent has a particular gift for depicting the larger than life "characters" of her life and the book was an enjoyable read despite her many hardships.

‘Between Two Trailers, A Memoir’ written by J. Dana Trent, is a memoir about forgiveness, loss, addiction, trauma, and coming home to the rural Midwest.

Trent is an excellent writer and a wonderful storyteller.

Trent explains her perspective of growing up with parents who have severe mental illness and addiction in the 1980’s. Trent grew up in a trailer with her parents who were well educated but struggled with mental illness that likely led to their addictions. By the age of four, Trent describes her experiences of sitting at the counter chopping up drugs for her father and helping him sling drugs while her mother laid in bed and guarded the trailer, drugs, and money. When she was six, her mother moved her to North Carolina away from her father, who remained in Vermillion County, where she had to tend to her mother’s illness and truly be a mother to her own mother. As a child, her true opportunities to be a child included late-night bike rides with her father who would take her and her cousins around their county telling them stories. While the stories her father told may have been “the biggest fish” types of stories, she clearly has obtained some storytelling abilities from her father. Her story captivates you and draws you into this page-turning memoir.

Trent does an excellent job of pulling you in and keeping you interested in her story. This book is very well written and exceeded my expectations. I anticipated this book would read similarly to ‘Hillbilly Elegy, A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis’ written by J.D. Vance; but I was pleasantly surprised that this did not read as a dramatization of her life but rather a true reflection of her experiences. I was disappointed in ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ and wish ‘Between Two Trailers’ would have come out before ‘Hillbilly Elegy.’ It easily could have obtained as much publicity and acknowledgment as ‘Hillbilly Elegy.’

I was hesitant to read this book, but as others have stated, memoirs draw us in and we can obtain an insight into people who may have had either similar or different experiences. I grew up in the Midwest in the same time period as both Trent and Vance and while my experiences are very different than theirs, I find Trent does an excellent job of describing and expressing her story. She had a remarkable childhood into adulthood and allows us to bear witness to her life. I appreciate that Trent truly exposes herself and her story to the reader.

Personally, I think this book should reach New York Times bestselling titles. Publishers Weekly has compared it to ‘Educated’ written by Tara Westover and ‘The Glass Castle’ written by Jeannette Walls. ‘Between Two Trailers’ is hands down my favorite memoir when ranked against these three: ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ ‘Educated’ and ‘The Glass Castle.’

Thank you #NetGalley and #Convergent for the opportunity to listen to this early audio version in exchange for a review. All opinions and thoughts are those of my own. #BetweenTwoTrailers

Why are memoirs reciting the author’s childhood traumas fascinating to so many? It is just my theory but I believe that is because few of us experienced the idyllic childhood envisioned by the fantasist. After all, how would that be possible when we are raised by inexperienced caretakers with their own personal desires and failings who probably only have books by “childcare experts” or their own parents flawed methods for guidance. And so, there is definitely some universal interest in reading these stories of others perhaps in some ways worse or in some better than our own. In J. Dana Trent’s case her upbringing was borderline dangerous tempered by membership in a familial tribe that watched out for her and brought her to the day when she produced this well written memoir. I believe that this one will rank up there with the excellent “Glass Castle”, Educated”, and “The Liar’s Club”.

This was quite a read, kept me interested all the way though. So sad anyone has to grow up with both parents being impaired, then having them split up and being bounced back and forth. A painful story that you wish you could magically go back and fix for the author. I too, grew up as “trailer trash” of sorts, but always new doublewides as a mobile home dealer.

It’s always inspiring to read about people who were dealt a bad hand in life but emerge resilient and well. Thank you to the author for sharing your story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Convergent Books for an advanced copy of Between Two Trailers for review. All opinions are my own.

J. Dana Trent tells a story of searching for a sense of home that draws the reader in with the first sentence. While the first sentence is captivating, it is also mind-boggling that this is a true story. Between Two Trailers is a raw, honest depiction of growing up in flyover America in the 1980s. The details used by J. Dana Trent as she describes the mental health issues with both parents, family drug-peddling, and her search for a sense of home makes her memoir stick in your mind long after the last page. The author shows that home is never really far away, if you know what you are looking for.