Abstract
"In My Own Hands" is a novel that follows the life of Abbie, a young woman with an overbearing, needy mother and absentee father. As a young child Abbie witnesses the abuse of her mother at the hands of her biological father. While seh doesn't quite understand it them, as she gets older she gradually comes to terms with her parents' relationship and its effect on her. Later, Abbie befriends an older boy and begins to confide in him. But when he gets involved with Abbie's mother, Abbie is left to deal with yet another betrayal on her own. Throughout the novel Abbie struggles--with her mother, with her father, with her mother's boyfriend, with her guilt about being the only one her father never hurt, with her feelings towards men and sex, and with the pressure to support and mother her own mother. This is a coming-of-age story, a story about the struggle to find oneself in a complex world.
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