This memoir caught my attention with the synopsis. "Budge" was raised by two mentally ill parents. Her Dad had Schizophrenia and her Mom was a manic-depressive with a childhood full of drugs and poverty.

Both parents' mental illness pulled and pushed Dana through her childhood and into adult life, giving her an unconventional upbringing. Her story became a story of resentment, forgiveness, loss, trauma, and addiction.

Rating a memoir is hard. Everyone's story deserves a voice, and who is anyone to judge that?! Thank you to Netgalley and Dana Trent for this free ARC ebook. This review is 100% my honest opinion.

a beautiful memoir of addiction, trauma, resilience, and coming home.

i really enjoyed the writing style of the book. the writer’s voice really shone through and it felt like i was reading their diary. however, at times the story could be hard to follow or felt a bit repetitive, but overall it was a very enjoyable memoir. thanks to netgalley for the opportunity to read this!

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. This novel was really interesting for someone studying psychopathology, as Dana's parents both had some very complex diagnoses. Dana's experience makes me think a lot about attachment theory and how at some point, we will either have to work through childhood trauma, or the burden will only become heavier to carry. I would recommend this to all my social work friends. I only removed a star because it did feel a little unorganized and there were some meaningless tangents. I still read them because I was invested in Dana's story and felt she deserves to tell it just how she observed it.

"Old baggage was hard to let go of, no matter where we found ourselves living, no matter how new our paths looked. King had his new place on an old coal pile; I had my new master's degree from an old university. But we were still us: Vermillion County drug-running trailer trash one meth hit away from the carny caste."

Thank you NetGalley for this digital ARC.

between two trailers is a memoir that follows Dana, more affectionately known as 'Budge.' Dana grew up with two severely mentally ill parents, her father 'King' struggled with schizophrenia and was a drug dealer in their small town. Her mother 'Lady' dealt with personality disorders and had an obsession with psychiatric care, despite never listening to doctors advice on her condition. Dana was constantly pulled between the two parents, we see her being a razor wielding 6 year old to a full grown woman constantly attending to her mothers every need. Dana truely had to learn to survive her childhood, relying on the care of her community and extended family to keep her afloat.
An incredible story of addiction, loss, trauma, mental illness and pure survival.
The writing at times could be a little choppy and repetitive, through overall such an amazing book!

A beautiful memoir about resentment, regret, and redemption.
"A marriage between two mentally ill drug addicts that begins in a psych hospital is bound to end in madness"

In the 1980s, Dana grew up in a broke down trailer with her parents—educated and capable, but troubled— surrounded by bales of marijuana and cocaine bricks. Recruited to work for a drug boss and struggling with their own addictions, trauma, and mental health conditions, her parent's, "King" and "the Lady", left Dana mostly neglected. By the age of four, Dana was sitting at the counter chopping up marijuana for her father and helping him sling his drugs. After all, kids make the best hustlers... "No one expects a runt in a Looney Tunes T-shirt to shank you".
When she was six years old, the Lady ripped Dana away from her home and her father and moved her to North Carolina where life only got harder. Living in fear of abandonment by the only parent she had left, Dana grew anxious, angry, and lonely. It wasn’t until many, many years later that she recognized that in order to move forward and accept herself, she had to make peace with her past.

"I realize now that... the real danger was in not accepting my parents for who they were, mental illness and addiction and poverty and all. The real danger was in not realizing that they were doing the very best they could with what they had."

Trent had a truly remarkable childhood. Bearing witness to her living through so much neglect and poverty was heartbreaking and yet fascinating to read about. I found it truly inspiring that she was able to turn her own life around after coming from such a rough upbringing. I'm such a sucker for these kinds of stories. The writing style was not my favorite, however. At times, the writing felt choppy and jumpy and, at other times, cryptic and vague, which would make it difficult to follow the story line but overall, I still enjoyed the journey.

Thank you NetGalley for my digital copy! Out 04/16/2024!