UNBROKEN

LIFE OUTSIDE THE LINES

by Adriene Caldwell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2025

Caldwell recounts growing up in an abusive home and discusses the failures of the American foster care system in this harrowing coming-of-age memoir.

In the book’s prologue, the author recalls, in characteristic hyper-detail, a failed suicide attempt where the safety mechanism of the gun she held in her hand “engaged by a fraction of a millimeter.” This disturbing episode sets the tone for the rest of the narrative, which offers a raw, unvarnished account of Caldwell’s childhood and adolescence (the author describes living in a “paradoxical state of survival and despair”). Connecting her personal story to her family’s generational trauma, the book begins with a family history that centers around her grandfather’s physical and verbal abuse. The author’s mother would subsequently abuse her in a similar fashion, compounding it with neglect due to her untreated schizophrenia. Following the death of her grandmother at a young age, Caldwell had a nomadic childhood split between a myriad of places that included her aunt’s home, stints in foster care, and a European hostel for foreign exchange students. In this no-holds-barred indictment of the “abyss of systemic failure” on the part of the government agencies and adults who were supposed to protect her, the author details the ways she endured physical, mental, and sexual abuse throughout her youth. When placed in therapeutic foster care, a specialized system for children who require significant psychological and emotional support, she was assigned to a foster parent simply referred to as “The Bitch From Hell” throughout the book, a stern woman with “unchecked power” who eschewed warmth and kindness for strict oversight of her wards’ daily existence. Even the rare person who showed Caldwell warmth—a married man who befriended the author and showered her with affection and gifts—proved to be a predator who groomed her into having a nine-year, intermittent sexual relationship that started when she was 14 years old.

While this is not an overtly spiritual or religious work, the author does occasionally mention her tumultuous relationship with God. She questions the lack of intervention when she needed help, yet also expresses gratitude for allowing her childhood pain to fashion her “into something magnificent and unyielding” as an adult. The author punctuates the raw narrative with moments of literary poignancy (“adults had failed me before, their promises as empty as our apartment’s bare walls”), and while it’s often a grim read, Caldwell seeks to inspire readers with similar backgrounds by highlighting her subsequent reconciliation with family and her personal successes (including admittance to law school) to serve as a “beacon of resilience and hope.” The book’s intimate prose often reads like a novel with its descriptive scene-building, character development, and internal monologues. The engaging storytelling is backed by appendix material that includes reports written by caseworkers that document Caldwell’s story, which she relayed to them at the age of 13. An accompanying website offers readers additional ancillary material, including a photo album that documents her life from birth through adulthood. This is a powerful story of resilience and self-empowerment as well as a reminder that “even in your life’s most shadowed moments, there exists a path forward.”

An emotionally raw, unflinching story of overcoming childhood abuse, neglect, and trauma.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2025

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Unbroken

Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2025

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL NONFICTION