Scrap: Salvaging a Family is an emotionally devastating look at a a family fractured by silence and secrets, an exploration of inherited generational trauma, and the ultimate healing and resolution of the author’s relationship with her father.
The story is told in flash memoir, each snippet providing a glimpse into this family akin to flipping through an old photo album and reminiscent of the fleeting nature of memories and how churning through them inevitably changes them. The reader sees how angry and abusive the father is and how he ill-treats her in a way he never treats the son born several years later. When the father receives a deadly diagnosis, their relationship shifts. The daughter gains some understanding of the father while he comes to understand how his abuse affected her. Their reconciliation isn’t simple and, rather than being instantaneous, evolves over time.
Castle’s prose is spare but rich with emotional resonance. I particularly admired the courage Castle displays as she uses genealogical and genetic research to prove who her grandfather is. She then catapults that into her understanding of how her father’s bastardy affected his life and made him angry. On the other hand, he never realized that the occasional scraps of affection did not lessen the impact of the bare-assed spankings, locked doors, and yelling.
Reading this deeply moving memoir of anger, fear, forgiveness, and redemption, stirred up my own emotions as I was forced to review my own relationship with equally brutal father. Scrap is, at times, a brutal read, but well worth the angst to see the resolution.
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Scrap: Salvaging a Family (ELJ Editions , February 26, 2026) is available through:
Your local independent bookseller | Amazon
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You can read my reviews of other of Luanne Castle’s books here:
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