Jason Schmidt

"In his searing, honest, and ultimately inspiring memoir, Jason Kovacs tells the story of growing up with an abusive father, who contracted HIV and ultimately died of AIDS when Jason was a teenager"--

A List of Things That Didn't Kill Me

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A List of Things that Didn't Kill Me is an eye-opening memoir about growing up with an abusive parent, and it's also a story of getting through a rough life, of determination to keep going. Schmidt's story can be brutal at times, but it doesn't read as a series of tragedies. It's admirable how he gets through it and tells his story after the fact, portraying his relationship with his dad and his life as very complex and many-sided. 

I like Schmidt's writing style in his prose, but the chapter structure often threw me off, because it jumped around chronologically a bit; he wrote thematically and grouped events rather than times. He doesn't tone down events for the readers, even though this is categorized as YA, which is good, and I hope it helps kids in situations similar to his feel less alone.

A List of Things That Didn't Kill Me

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