Truth or Dare Blog Tour: The S Word by Paolina Milana

Published: May 5, 2015 // She Writes Press
Goodreads // Amazon //
Copy received for blog tour

In accordance with her Sicilian Catholic family’s unspoken code, Paolina Milana learned at an early age to keep her secrets locked away where no one could find them. Nobody outside the family needed to know about the voices her Mamma battled in her head; or about how Paolina forged her birth certificate at thirteen so she could get a job at The Donut Shop; or about the police officer twenty-six years her senior whose promise to her Papà to “keep an eye on her” quickly translated into something sinister. And perhaps that’s why no one saw it coming when—on the eve of her sweet sixteen, pushed to edge—Paolina attempted to take her own mother’s life. 

Raw and compelling, The S Word is the true story of a girl who nearly suffocates in the silence she was taught to value above all else—until she finally finds the strength to break free of the secrets binding her and save herself.

I picked up this book with no expectations. I don’t mean that in a bad way. I just mean, that, I guess. Well. I just didn’t have any idea what to expect with this book. I am shocked and awed. I am shocked and awed at what a human can survive and can, I guess, learn from? We can learn from anything, I think. If we consider ‘why’ enough. THE S WORD is a different kind of powerful.

Navigating the world of a first-generation American with a heap of road blocks like schizophrenic mother, a donut shop cop problem and a priest who won’t absolve you of your sins, is the soundtrack to Paolina Minlana’s young adult life.

The reader follows her as she discovers not only herself, but the life she has set to lead, as well as further learn how to deal with the world. I’m not sure I can say I like the book, just because that makes me feel a little sadistic. However, I can say I like the manner in which she approaches her life with out sparkles and sugar coating so many of us embellish our lives with. I mean, hell, she makes decisions and they’re not always the right ones. Of course, who am I (or anyone else) to judge on what is right and what is wrong? I mean, really.

You have to deal with what life throws at you in the best way you know how. Even if life seems to continuously throw you the short stick. And I think that’s what this book is about.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is, Paola, grazie. Thank you for writing your story the best way you know how.