Like an elevator with a broken cable, Cupcake’s life plummets from age eleven when she finds her mother dead, until her mid twenties when she lands in a dumpster, beaten, bleeding and suicidal – still up for one more hit.

Cupcake’s memoir takes us through a parade of pimps, tricks, dealers, gangbangers, crooked cops, pedophiles and sadistic foster parents for whom jail would be too kind. Few opportunities are missed by these villains to do her harm, and Cupcake’s ability for self-harm more than makes up for any breaks she might have had.

The `system,’ such as it is, fails her miserably, denying her access to those who genuinely cared, and repeatedly handing her over to caregivers who were anything but.

Details of calamity, disaster, and degradation heaped upon degradation are rendered with a deadpan gallows humor and talent for capturing dialog that positively shines – much of it delivered in what she calls street vernacular.

However, by the time recovery enters the picture, around page 300, I felt more than a twinge of battle fatigue. Still, I read every page and would recommend others do so, too.

The recovery itself is, of course, exceptional. And taken at face value, her journey from ghetto to gavel is nothing short of miraculous. Yet there’s nothing remotely pious or preachy in her narrative. A stumbling block confronted by others, (notably James Frey in his factitious Million Little Pieces where he heaps scorn upon anything other than macho self-reliance), is the God content inherent in twelve step programs. Cupcake rolls up her atheism, cynicism, and agnosticism into a form of pragmatism that embraces a god of her own understanding, thoroughly independent of religious dogma.

With this and her abiding `family’ of loved ones, (as opposed to simply blood relatives), she goes about the painstaking, arduous process of putting together a formal education, not just in the legal academy, but in the ways of dealing with life on life’s terms.

To temper and offset all these estimable pursuits, there’s a foil in the form of a little voice – acerbic and street-talking – that’s always ready and willing to sabotage her and take her back down to the lowest of the low. Some of the greatest humor in a remarkably funny book comes from these little Tourette’s-like outbursts appearing at the most inopportune moments.

Finally, as Cupcake says, recovery isn’t for those who need it, but those who want it – and she needs it, wants it, and gets it in a style that’s pure inspiration.

More power to her.
Rating: 5 / 5

This is a good story but very hard to read. The book is overly long because the first 300 pages (!) go on at great length about every detail of the child abuse, rape, drug use, prostitution, addiction, and how-hard-it-was story. We all know these details from other books. This could have been cut or edited down to say 100 pages. The STORY starts on page 312 when the author decides to turn her life around and all the angels show up and she transforms herself from an uneducated drug-dealing prostitute to a beginning student and eventually becomes an attorney. This part of the book is gripping and would be extremely beneficial to any returning student and/or recovering addict. Her AA sponsor is the true heroine of the book. Credibility was strained on page 159 when the migration of her IUD to her uterus (sic) causes a severe medical emergency. Ms Brown, please look up the definition of intra-uterine. On page 452 the description of her yellow knit pantsuit as an interview outfit was the funniest thing I have read in ages. That will be a big humor scene in the inevitable movie.
Rating: 3 / 5

FIRST OF ALL LET ME SAY PLEASE DON’T SPEND OVER $2.OO ON THIS PIECE OF JUNK. HAD THIS JUST BEEN A FICTION MAYBE IT WOULD HAVE BEEN OK, BUT A TRUE STORY, GET REAL CUPCAKE. THERE ARE SO MANY LIES IN THIS BOOK UNTIL IT IS UNREAL. CUPCAKE WANTS US TO BELIEVE SHE LANDED ALL THESE JOBS AT LAW FIRMS WEARING HALTER TOPS, MINI SKIRTS ECT, NOT TO MENTION SHE WAS HIGH ON DRUGS EACH TIME AND SHE CUSSED OUT THE RECEPTIONIST AT ONE PLACE AND STILL GOT THE JOB. SHE GETS FIRED AT ON LAW OFFICE AND GOES ACROSS THE STREET TO ANOTHER ONE AND GETS ON AND NOBODY CALLS FOR REFERENCES. BECAUSE SHE HAS ALWAYS WANTED TO BE LIGHT SKINNED SHE MEETS A LIGHTED SKINNED GIRL WHO REALLY WANTS TO BE DARKED SKINNED WITH NAPPY HAIR AND SHE CHANGES HER LIFE FOREVER. THEN SHE ASKS “GOD” FOR DIFFERENT STUFF AND HE GIVES IT TO HER EACH AND EVERY TIME, BUT MIND U SHE ONLY TALK TO HIM WHEN SHE NEEDS TO WALK,GET HER RENT PAID, PASS A TEST, U KNOW STUFF LIKE THAT. SHE NEVER ONCE JOINED CHURCH OR WENT NOR DID SHE EVER CONFESS “CHRIST” AS HER “LORD” AND SAVIOR. I COULD GO ON AND ON WITH THE LIES BUT I’M SO FINISH WITH THIS JUNK UNTIL IT IS NOT EVEN WORTH MY TIME TO SIT HERE AND WRITE. OH YEAH I WENT ON HER WEB SITE TWICE AND WROTE A NEGATIVE REVIEW AND GUESS WHAT EACH TIME I WENT BACK IT WAS GONE. NOTHING IS OUT THERE BUT POSTIVE STUFF. ON HER WEBSITE SHE STATES THERE IS A $5000.OO CHARGE FOR HER TO SPEAK IN PUBLIC, GIRL I WOULDN’T EVEN GIVE YOU $5.00 TO SPEAK TO MY GREAT DAME. PLEASE
Rating: 1 / 5