Home is where the heart is, or so they say. But what if your heart is stuck wandering around, lost, with no sense of direction? That's where Janice Erlbaum was in high school. At fifteen, she walked out of her mother's house and became 'homeless', though she never was without a roof on her head. In the following three years, she would go through boy after boy, and try every drug that seemed to be available in 1980's New York.
All of which is described in vivid detail in her first memoir, Girlbomb: a Halfway Homeless Memoir. Janice speaks frankly about her experiences, and has no qualms explaining how high her highs were, and also how low her lows were. She doesn't judge her past self, though it's obvious that she's moved on from her once damaging life. She just tells it like it was, how she dealt with all sorts of abuse (emotional, drug, physical, verbal).
Though her style is a bit dry in parts, and you just want her to move along in the story, her tale as a whole is rather riveting. You can't help but want to learn more, figure out how she dealt with this boy or if she managed to survive this drug. Reading her book, I find myself both disgusted and intrigued, wanting to know more as if I were living vicariously through her, without all the dangerous side effects.
Overall, I give this book 3.5 of 5 stars. I found her second memoir, Have You Found Her, to be much more riveting, but I still appreciate the insight given in this one.
Written by Chelle
Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir
by Janice Erlbaum
ISBN: 9780812974560
$11.16 on Amazon.com
