Freckled

A Memoir of Growing Up Wild in Hawaii

By: T. W. Neal

Narrated by: Sara Malia Hatfield

For fans of The Glass Castle and Educated comes mystery author Toby Neal’s personal story of surviving a wild childhood in paradise.

We never call it homeless. We're just "camping" in the jungle on Kauai....

We live in a place everyone calls paradise. Sure, Kauai’s beautiful, with empty beaches, drip-castle mountains, and perfect surf...but we’ve been "camping" for six months, eating boiled chicken feed for breakfast, and wearing camouflage clothes so no one sees us trespassing in our jungle hideout. The cockroaches leave rainbow colors all over everything from eating the crayons we left outside the tent, and now a tractor is coming to scrape our camp into the river.

Standing in front of the tent in my nightgown, clinging to my sister as we face the tractor, I know my own truth: I just want to be normal.

But Mom and Pop are addicted.
Addicted to Kauai’s beauty, to drugs, to surfing, to living a life according to their own rules out from under their high-achieving parents’ judgmental eyes. I’m just their red-headed, mouthy, oldest kid. What I want doesn’t matter.

But I’m smart. I will make a different life for myself someday if I keep up my grades no matter what happens.
No matter how often we run out of food.
No matter how many times I change schools...or don’t go to school at all.
No matter how many bullies beat me up for the color of my skin.

©2018 Toby Neal 2018 (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

So Many Feels!!!

I loved reading Freckled, what a great story but I loved listening to it even more! The narrator did an amazing job with the voices. The dialogue was seamless and I found myself lingering in the car to hear more. Kudos! If you love the memoir genre and you love audio books you will not be disappointed!

Wonderful!

Thank you, Toby, for sharing your story! Your honesty, strength, attention to detail and story telling are a gift. Very well narrated!

A 10 Star book!

I was immediately drawn into the story. It took a chapter to get accustomed to the narrator’s voice, and it was the PERFECT voice in both tone and cadence for this story. Then, there’s the story itself… I was captivated. The ending surprised me… but, I’ll not tell you why. If I listened in the car, when I parked the car, I immediately switched to ear phones so I could continue to listen. I think you’ll love this book. I did! Thank you, Tony Neil, for sharing your story.

Insight into Hawaii in the 60's and 70's

This book had me hooked from the beginning. I loved the narrator's voice and although I didn't grow up poor and my parents were attentive....I could relate to many of her experiences....bullying, reading as a refuge, running wild in the out of doors, Collectively, my children and I have spent many years in Hawaii and the descriptions of the trails and the beauty and even the experiences with the locals was familiar. Hawaii is complicated and beautiful and dear to my soul.....and the author brought all this to the light.

Great Memoir of old Hawaii

Loved this story! I currently live in Oahu and enjoyed learning how non- natives carried on in a land that was not receptive of outsiders. Also hearing how surfer hippies and their poor families survived during the 60s and 70s. I love the main character's determination to have a different future than how she grew up, to rise above her situation and be the person she so desperately wanted to be. I grew up in this time period and can resonate with much of what was written. Thank you for such a compelling story!!

Narration problem

The woman performing this audiobook has an annoying speech problem, namely, beginning many words with the syllable ah. For example, during at least half the book, I thought the writer’s sister’s was named Abonnie, rather than her real name of Bonnie. This problem was so prevalent, I misunderstood enough words that I often had to rewind and listen to the sentence a second time. Even though I figured it out, this problem became more than a little annoying by the end of the book.

Captures the Essence of an Era

I have lived with these and similar people, in the same and similar places and times, and I can say that Toby tells her stories accurately and honestly, while brilliantly capturing the energy and essence of a whole era.

She manages to convey the joy and beauty and excitement coupled with the disappointments and terror and prejudice of those days. It is a compelling story and a historical phenomenon.

Not many people can tell a story from a child’s perspective, and maintain that perspective convincingly, as she grows up. Toni pulls it off beautifully.

I loved the narrator—she was perfectly attuned to every nuance of the story, even finding just the right pitch for the young author’s obnoxious screams of indignation.

Great story telling

I enjoyed the story, but the narration was a little tough. The voice of the book is a child Toby, from age 4 till adulthood and the narrator speaks in a childish voice. I can understand the approach but it was hard to listen to. So beware, you will probably enjoy the story, filled with lush imagery of Hawaii in the 70s, and excellent writing about being raised by parents who prioritized partying and surfing, but you will have to suffer through an adult reading it in a baby voice.

Nice imagery of life in Hawaii despite human fails

Interesting stories. Beautiful imagery when describing Hawaii's natural beauty. Sad at times, as the islands' beauty was the backdrop for a dysfunctional and at times abusive human experience. The reader's uh-style of forming words was somewhat annoying, but overall the book kept me engaged to the end.

So inspiring!

I have so much admiration for Toby’s willpower and determination. This story makes most childhoods look like fairytales.