Wow, this lady had everyone fooled big time. I’ve heard so many good things about this memoir and it was a top book on so many lists when it came out in 2019—I hated it. It is literally 300 pages of a white woman complaining. She writes about her time working as a maid, living on food stamps, while trying to raise her young daughter as a single mom. I could probably write 300 pages of my own on why I despised this book, but I’ll try to keep it brief (-ish).

Stephanie Land thinks she’s a victim of everything. She feels sorry for herself, thinks she’s super special and doesn’t deserve the circumstances she’s in. The way she acts and writes, you would think all this was happening to her when she was 19 or 20. No. This woman is 28 years old when she gets pregnant with her daughter and then the years of “poverty” as calls it, begin. She bemoans the fact that she had to give up college when her daughter was born. Um ma’am you are 30, what were you doing this whole time. She’s super judgmental about everyone else beside herself. She’s entitled and whiny. I don’t doubt that she worked hard, but she acts as if she’s the only one in the whole world that does. She also says absolutely nothing about her white privilege and instead wonders why she’s able to find housing sooo much more easily than other people on government assistance. And actually, this book wouldn’t have even been published if she weren’t white. Because this hard life she was living for a total of 3 years, is the harsh reality of many people for their whole lives.

Other things that irked me—her daughter takes ballet lessons and has to drink organic milk only. Stephanie eventually does enroll in school part time, and guess what courses she takes? French lessons. She buys herself a diamond ring because she says she doesn’t need a man to buy her one. She got mad that her dad forgot her birthday and when he sends her $100 as a gift, she decides to buy an expensive lunch to stick it to him. Obviously there’ nothing wrong with these things objectively, but if you’ve just spent 150 pages talking about how little money you have, maybe you should start spending it more wisely. It actually makes me mad that she’s profited so much from this book now because her ego didn’t need to be any larger. She goes on and on about her ex-boyfriends and her parents and how unhelpful they are. Lady, you are a grown woman. And she treats them badly too, so I don’t know why she expects any different. Okay, I’ll stop with my ranting, but bottom line—I detest this book and this woman and I would give this book zero stars if I could