Hippie Boy: a Girl’s Story by Ingrid Ricks

Blurb (from the product description on Amazon):

What would you do if your Mormon stepfather pinned you down and tried to cast Satan out of you? For thirteen-year-old Ingrid, the answer is simple: RUN.

For years Ingrid has begged her free-wheeling dad to let her join him on the road as a tool-selling vagabond to escape the suffocating poverty and religion at home. When her devout Mormon mother marries Earl―a homeless Vietnam vet who exploits the religion’s male-dominated culture to oppress and abuse her family―she finally gets her wish. Ingrid spends the next few summers living on the margins while hustling tools with her dad and his slimy, revolving sales crew. He becomes her lifeline and escape from Earl. But when her dad is arrested, she learns the lesson that will change her life: she can’t look to others to save her; she has to save herself.

Review:

Hippie Boy is the autobiography of a girl who grew up in a dysfunctional Morman family.  It is essentially a coming of age story.  The story ends with the girl’s graduation from high school; I would have liked to have learned what became of the woman and her family without having to resort to a Google search, so that was a bit of a ‘minus’.  Other than that, the book was well-written and enjoyable.  The author’s style as much as the story she was recounting made me keep reading, even when I probably should have been sleeping.

Aside from the fact that there is not even an epilogue to tell the reader what became of Ingrid and her family, I can’t think of anything negative about this book.  I’m not sure that it’s one I’ll reflect on or want to read again, but I would recommend it to anyone who likes biographies.

Rating: 4 stars