Fruit Punch: A Memoir

"This book is called Fruit Punch, but “sangria” might be the closer metaphor for what it felt like to read. The memoir is funny and painful and sweet and angry and scared and hopeful – not at different moments, but all at once. The writing is spare and the chapters are short, but each vignette is dense: learning to slow dance in the laundromat, driving to visit her dad for the last time, losing your religion while singing in the church choir. Kendra Allen contrasts the simplicity of childhood language with the dizzying complexity of childhood emotion and experience. It’s a book best sipped on, in my experience. Drink too fast and you might lose your head."