By: Ashley M.
Janice Erlbaum ran away from home at age fifteen. She lived in New York with her mom, Barb, and her abusive husband. She has written two memoirs about her teenage years including Girlbomb. The book starts out with Janice explaining how shitty her life was living with her step father, Dave. He would get so angry he would go on a rampage throwing things in the living room even threatening to kidnap Janice's baby step brother. Barb had a routine of saying they were done, breaking it off, and then two weeks later, Dave would be back. Janice had enough of it.
Janice told her mom that if Dave came back, she was gone. When her mom came into her room one night using the same tone she would always use when telling Janice he was coming back, she just knew. Janice packed up her bag that night and left. She through the streets of New York until she found a nearby shelter. She stayed there until they found her a group home in the Upper West Side. While adjusting to her new life at the group home and attending high school she attempts to juggle friends, work, relationships, drugs, and life without her mother.
When writing this book, Janice was very open and honest about her past. Although it was a tough life, and she didn't make the best decisions, she still accepted her past and shared it with the world. The beginning of this book was a little slow and it awhile to get into the big storyline. But, it was really interesting to follow her life as a teenager experiencing things that I hope I will never have to come close to experiencing in my own life.
I think Janice Erlbaum did a good job of taking her sad past and turning it into an inspiring story for the rest of us to learn from. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to read about an encouraging real life battle of a girl trying to make it through her teenage years on her own.
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