Never Giving up on Myself:

Never Giving up on Myself Angela H. Fitts is her first-ever published work. There are grammatical errors, but overall, the pace of her book was spot on. The book opens with her birthdate and defines her character traits. According to Angela, “Playing music keeps my mind at peace.” (p. 7) I found this to be a great attention grabber to hook the reader in. I would have loved to have had an example of lyrics block quoted to emphasize her point further. “We were wearing ponytails, when I met her.” (p.9) This quote creates great imagery. Angela goes on to talk about the weight of heartbreak she has endured. I would love to see, the author structure her book over three main events of heartbreak. That way her personal stories developed further.

Angela infers how broken-heartedness is hard to carry, I would love to see this theme explored in more depth. Her book was a quick read for being 117 pages in length. However, it comes across as more of a chronicle than a memoir. She expresses her raw emotions, during the trying and happy moments of her life. She covers a great deal of learning about the importance of body autonomy. Every anecdote left, me wondering what will happen next? She does a lot of foreshadowing throughout her chronicle, and this builds the suspense. “I grew up fast, but my body development is a little slow. Mind you, all my friends had butt’s chests, and hips. All I had, was a little high butt.” (p.18) I found this description endearing of her younger self. Despite her admitting she did not like the way she was built. She narrates how her lack of a father figure and body development are contributing factors to her suffering from low self-esteem.

She does give an introspective on how red flags were lessons she learned the hard way. There were highly emotional moments in her life, described minutes up to her abortion, as a teen (p. 23). The emotions she felt in labor with her youngest (p. 62) are just two examples. Angela is very open about her relationship with a higher power. She praises how that has shaped her understanding of the world. Angela, speaks highly of her mother. Despite all the ways, she felt she may have disappointed her mother. There were a few moments where she referred to herself as “Peaches,” it took me a minute to realize this was a given nickname. I admire that through all the adversity she faced in her personal life Angela held down a job for her children. I feel the overall cost of her chronicle is fair. The ending was just like a cliffhanger. I was hoping for highlighted topics to be brought full circle. I would have liked to have seen the photos she included at the end dispersed in each of her chapters.

I would recommend this chronicle to those, who may be experiencing similar forms of abuse. According to Angela, “We got to be mindful about what we let these kids learn.” This is a self-evaluation of her written work, after publication. In the text, she mentions the many support groups she has formed:How to live with Anxiety and Panic Behavior, Psychopathic Narcassict Survivor Support Group, Broken Relationship (sisterhood), and Coming Out of the Darkness. Angela’s groups are safe spaces for survivors to share their feelings, which they may otherwise keep bottled up.

In a live Facebook discussion, she expresses her drive to write down her experiences, “I got tired of anxieties, I got tired of living on eggshells. I am going to open a group, and I am going to share my story. I want to tell people they are not alone, not be afraid to speak out and tell people what you are going through.” I could see this chronicle turned into a screenplay in the future. As a reader what I took away from Angela’s story is that there is power in owning up to mistakes. She illustrates being human is messy and that no one is perfect, but never give up on oneself.