Finding Home Book Review

While safety and peace seem like they should be birthrights, some of us are born into situations that simply don't allow for these niceties. With a father who sold drugs and a mother who depended on them, the world felt anything but calm to author Mathew Chase.

Growing up in one of the toughest parts of Philadelphia, Mathew learned things in his first few years of life that most of us never have to learn, like how to survive hunger when there's no food in the house and no one there to notice . . . how not to cry or show fear while being beat with a shoe by a foster parent . . . how to mask any signs of vulnerability when passing the dealers and gangsters on the street . . . or how to fight when one or a bunch of kids jump you on your way home from school.

Somehow, Mathew knew he had a choice. He could conform to the status quo and become a victim of the mentality generated by this environment, or he could find a way to break free and build a different kind of life. Joining the U.S. military at age 18 as an exit route from what he'd known forever seemed like a promising solution, but it carried an exacting price tag of its own.

Mathew's childhood began to seem like it had been easy compared to the brutality of training and fighting in Iraq while witnessing the slaying of friends who had become like brothers. Would Mathew ever find home? Follow the author's journey through seemingly endless challenges and failures to understand how these selfsame circumstances mold him into a mature and courageous man. In Finding Home, pain and heartbreak are transformed to what they truly are – stepping stones to ultimate strength and personal freedom.

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Finding Home was emotional and was a hard read for me. Not because it wasn't good but because of the subject matter.  I was actually having a conversation with someone the other day about their childhood and my childhood. Things could have been easier if someone would have stepped in to lift people up instead of making it worse. Like the girl who recently was body slammed by the officer while in her classroom over a cellphone. She had lost her parents and was now in foster care and in a new school. Kids don't always react perfectly, they are children! That is why we as adults need to step in and help and protect them.

This book started out slow but I figured I'd keep with it because it was short. Parts were a bit rambly and I wish an editor went through it another time to smooth it out just a little bit but maybe they kept it that way to lend to the raw and emotional feeling of the book.

Finding Home rubbed some wounds that I thought were closed and seriously tugged at my heart strings. Matthew is amazing, he broke the cycle and took his life into his own hands.  The man has been through a lot and I wish I could give him a hug.

Why should you read this book? Because it shows you another side of what is going on in this Country to our children. Because knowing the other side helps us be more compassionate people.

I received a copy for  my honest review, no other compensation was received. 

Mathew Chase's Facebook Page | Literary Addicts

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