Official Review: Athena in the rathole by demi k

[Roy Nick]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Athena in the rathole" by demi k.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Athena’s parents are immigrants from Greece at the time of her birth. Having family disputes between her father and mother, her grandparents raised her for a while. She gets back to living with her abusive mother; she denies Athena food because she’s presumably too chubby, she calls her names as bad as ‘whore’. From a cruel mother to a barbaric school nun to a pervert babysitter, she has seen it all in life. Fast forward, Athena is old enough and has to follow a different path in life.

Athena in the rathole by demi k grips a reader’s attention from the beginning to the end. Demi shares her darkest and sweetest moments while growing up as an immigrant in the states without glossing over. The author inserted some Greek words and their relevant translations in English to spice up the tale. As such, this book can be valuable to readers who enjoy learning new words and languages.

First and foremost, I appreciate the tone and dialect employed in this book. There’s no use of formal language that makes a reader wonder if he/she is still devouring a memoir or a business guide. Additionally, Demi included humor in this piece that had me smiling at my laptop as the story progressed. The author does not sugarcoat instances in her past life. Many people, including myself, tend to keep our marital fights to ourselves; that is not the case here. She openly stipulates how often her parents had disagreements and how the disputes affected the family. I was additionally captivated by the use of imagery. For instance, I could undoubtedly create an image of Athena’s blonde grandfather with blue eyes.

I discovered nothing to despise about the writing. Nevertheless, I was a bit furious about Athena's mother’s ruthlessness. In several instances, she withheld food from Athena to prevent her from being chubbier. In many instances, she smacked the author over insignificant issues. That was the sole upsetting thing I encountered while reading this publication. But as the saying goes, we never select our parents.

I only detected two grammatical errors; therefore, the book is well edited. With memoirs and publications written from the narrator’s point of view, profanities are hard to miss. There are instances of erotic scenes; consequently, I’d not recommend to readers below the age of 18 years. I appreciated how the author played with words to achieve a riveting end. With the degree of proficiency employed in writing this piece, I rate it 4 out of 4 stars. I recommend it to lovers of memoirs.

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Athena in the rathole
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[Petruschka1]

This memoir makes the reader want to cry. I cannot imagine anything worse than a dysfunctional family life and a mother physically and verbally abusing her own daughter. The immigration background makes the narrative even more interesting.

[MarcellaM]

This review makes the book so relatable. It's so disappointing the hardship some children go through at such a tender age.

[Kavita Shah]

Wonderfully written review. I fee so sorry that Athena had been abused by her mother. I am going to add this to my want to read shelf.