Ashley C. Ford’s memoir, Somebody’s Daughter, tells the story of the author’s childhood and coming-of-age, with a focus on her complicated relationships with her mother and father. The memoir opens with an epigraph, a poem by Izumi Shikibu:

Although the wind
blows terribly here,
the moonlight also leaks
between the roof planks
of this ruined house.

The epigraph is followed by a letter from Ashley’s father. The letter reveals that he is in prison and has been incarcerated since Ashley was a little girl; he apologizes for the pain he has caused the family and promises that, someday, he will return to his children.

The narrative then opens onto the present day, with an adult Ashley living in New York with her boyfriend, Kelly. Ashley gets a call from her mother, who tells her that her father will soon be released from prison.

After this introduction, the story starts from the beginning, with Ashley’s earliest childhood memories. Ashley is shown to be an intelligent, loving, and resourceful child: she helps take care of her baby brother and is often forced to manage her mother’s explosive temper. Ashley is raised by her mother and her grandmother and, as a small child, doesn’t think much about her father’s absence.

After Ashley’s mother suffers a stillbirth, Ashley is sent to Missouri to live with her grandmother and her great-grandfather on their farm. There, at the age of five, Ashley has more freedom to play, read, and explore—to be a child in ways she isn’t allowed to be when she’s home with her physically and emotionally violent mother. After almost a year, Ashley and her grandmother return to their home in Indiana. Ashley does not want to return.

During this time, Ashley has limited contact with her incarcerated father. When they do speak on the phone, he is loving, proud, and supportive of his daughter. In contrast, Ashley’s mother can be cruel, withholding, and manipulative. On occasion, her acts of physical violence cause Ashley to fear for her life. As a child, Ashley learns that she cannot trust adults to take care of her or keep her safe.

When Ashley is in the second grade, a cousin her age is molested by a family member. Ashley’s mother becomes increasingly paranoid about sexual violence, demanding that Ashley never lie to her about being touched by a man; Ashley feels that her mother doesn’t trust her with the truth, and she is afraid of her own body as she gets older and enters adolescence.

As she gets older, Ashley notices that her body is starting to draw sexual attention from men, and it makes her unhappy and afraid. At a New Year’s Eve party, she is accosted by an adult man who kisses her; she is too afraid to tell her mother for fear that it is somehow her fault.

Ashley’s mother begins dating a man named Allen, who eventually buys the family a house and has a child with Ashley’s mother. Ashley and her brother don’t like Allen—he is cruel to their mother and to them both. Ashley’s mother tends to take Allen’s side in these conflicts.

In the sixth grade, Ashley begins dating an older boy named Bradley. He often pressures her sexually, and Ashley is unhappy in the relationship but afraid to leave. When she finally breaks up with him, he asks to see her one last time; when she does, Bradley rapes Ashley in her own backyard shed while his friend watches. This is a pivotally traumatic event for Ashley. She is afraid to tell her mother the truth, blaming herself...