Book Review On Ugly

UGLY!

By Constance Briscoe

"A True Story of a Loveless Childhood."

I handed my school photograph to my mother. She stared from the photograph to me. 'Lord sweet Lord how come she so ugly. UGLY. UGLY.'

Emotional and Physical abuse day and night all her adolescent life is what Constance Briscoe faced. This amazingly awe inspiring true story of the horrible life the writer had to put up with truly shows the strength of the human spirit. This story is extremely sad and you can't help but feel angry at the torture Constance has to put up with and follows her through her schooling years and her goal to become a barrister. As a teenager it makes you realise how lucky we are and makes you stop and think about the millions of children that face this problem everyday. 'UGLY' is an inspirational story that makes you appreciate your life and sends the message that no matter whom you are you can do anything, don't ever let yourself be told you're not good enough.

Constance's family life is a major point of interest in the book and is really what the story revolves around. Coming from a broken family, with her dad leaving Constance, otherwise known as Clare with 5 other brothers and sisters and her mum. The Father was hardly around only to bring Christmas presents and food. Clare was abused by her mother everyday, terrible physical abuse was inflicted on the growing body of Clare, benign cancer of the breasts caused by constant punches and squeezing from her mother. Emotionally shut out and neglected by her mother, taunted and teased all the time by her mother and her new husband, frequently called UGLY and told she was not welcome and unwanted. Home life was so bad Clare took herself off to social services and asked to be put into a home but was refused, feeling helpless and life was not living she attempted suicide by swallowing a bottle of bleach. "I felt sick, happy and sad. I was happy because tonight if the bleach worked I would die. No more Tomorrows. Hip, Hip hooray." This quote shows the extent of the abuse her mother used on Constance, her home life was unbearable. It is very sad to think that many children and teenagers are stuck in abusive families with no escape.

The only thing that kept Constance sane and probably from death was school, Constance was very bright, she was told she had excellent potential but did not apply herself. Constance did not have enough time to do her homework as she was treated like a slave at home, cooking and cleaning. On a field trip to a court house then and there Constance decided that she would become a Barrister. When she shared her dreams with her teacher she was told, "Dream for something you