Life stories and memoirs are popular books right now. Everyone who grows up has to learn the same things - how to behave in the world and relate to others. Each person has a different experience as he or she learns the ways of the world. Some people have a more unique experience than others, and some have such horrific lives that they need to share their stories with others to help prevent further occurrences, or to offer hope to those in similar situations, or to get back at those in their lives who made it so difficult. The following memoirs are about some of the most unimaginable childhoods made that way by the very people who are supposed to love and protect. You’ll be amazed at their stories.

A Child Called It: One Child’s Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer

Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood by Julie Gregory

They Cage the Animals at Night by Jennings Michael Burch

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Because I Remember Terror, Father I Remember You by Sue William Silverman

The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer

Crisis Pursued by Disaster Followed Closely by Catastrophe: A Memoir of Life on the Run by Mike O’Connor

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

My Lobotomy by Howard Dully

Wayne: An Abused Child’s Story of Courage, Survival and Hope by Wayne Theodore

Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Courter

Swallow the Ocean by Laura M. Flynn