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!!