In the nonfiction story of Stray: A Memoir by Stephanie Danler, the reader is able to hear about the major events in her life that makes her who she is today. Well, at least, it is a representation of those events. Readers can relate and reflect on the situations she talks about as a runaway and see circumstances that may be familiar to them from a different perspective.

I really liked how she did not hold back her emotions, even when she might not have known what she was feeling specifically. This got me more in tune with the stories and it was the best when all the events tied into each other so I was able to see her perspective and understand why she said what she said and why she felt the way she did.

There are multiple ups and downs in the story that reeled me in even more.  I also admire how the book was broken up into three sections which signify the three major life changing stories and people that contributed to who she is. The love – hate relationship is very strong in this book and as a reader you can and will fall in love with it.

There is also a lot of chaos to her story. One thing that I would say surprised me was the language of the book; it’s neither a good thing nor bad thing, I just never read a book that contained slightly vulgar language, but it brings more emotion and meaning to what happened and as a reader I was able to connect more with the characters because it’s real emotion.

The diction and format were well designed and the storyline is intriguing so I would give this book an 8.7 out of 10.