Storkbites: A Memoir

Marie Etienne's Storkbites about her childhood growing up in a loving, yet verbally and physically abusive family in Lafayette, LA draws you in like the savory smells of down home southern cooking. With Money, a big house, luxury cars, Mardi Gras balls, a sweet father, a mother who cooks and cares for her NINE children, this Catholic family suddenly turns from perfect to unbelievably chaotic and cruel. Etienne's parents are alcoholics with deep-rooted problems, shocking behavior, and no clue how to raise children. Each of Marie's eight siblings are interesting characters with distinct personalities you grow to care about. Some of them don't come out of this nice-and-brutal lifestyle as well as Marie did. Her openness and honesty about herself is courageous and admirable. This book is a page turner, by a talented writer, with a wry sense of humor and easy way of expressing herself. She uses a format which alternates back and forth from present to past to present, which pulls you in and keeps you hooked. Her lists of favorite Louisiana dishes and seafood make a Louisiana native crave the familiar Cajun dishes. Anyone who is not from the south gets a flavor of southern vernacular and traditions. This story would make a great movie, better than Steel Magnolias or Crimes of the Heart. I highly recommend it to anyone. Keep writing, Marie.

This book propels the reader through the roller coaster ride that was Marie Etienne's life growing up in south Louisiana. A ride loaded with alcoholism, physical abuse, drug abuse, murder, suicide, neglect, wealth, love and hate - all the issues that can make any book enthralling. But these issues were all a part of Marie Etienne's family life. The reader will find it unbelievable that this is a true story. I applaud Marie for the courage it took to write her story and especially for surviving her story.

Marie Etienne did an incredible job with her first novel "Storkbites." I found myself feeling what she felt in living in a dysfunctional and abusive family in childhood and to her own abusive behavior as she became an adult. Her use of beautiful words immediately transformed you into feeling the area and the feelings that this family went through. This book will make you laugh, cry and be angry that these children had to grow up in such an environment. I say bravo to the author for realizing she needed to change these patterns in raising her own boys. Storkbites is a must read for everyone .

I would never have imagined I could enjoy a memoir until I read the first page of Storkbites. I was pulled right into the book and found myself staying up late many nights, reading about the author's life. Her book is filled with the right amount of detail making the reader feel like the events took place just moments before she wrote them. She looks at herself and her family with unabashed frankness. The story gives hope to each one of us, that every family may have its issues but that some can succeed regardless. Etienne is sure to be a writer whose talent will keep us entertained and enthralled far into the future. Her fresh outlook and gentle voice make reading Storkbites a pleasurable and poignant adventure!

Marie Etienne's story of growing up rich in Louisiana, one of 9 children who are each in some way scarred by the experience, leads readers on a harrowing tale of abuse of nearly every kind: physical, verbal, alcoholic, drugs, sexual excess - and above all a family legacy of secret insanity. Push/pull, give/take, love/hate, guilt/forgiveness, monetary generosity/emotional stinginess - these kids were jerked this way and that, and none emerged unscathed. Of the nine children, 2 died of either suicide or murder and the others continue, as adults, to struggle in their own ways with their violent heritage.Etienne describes her own descent into alcoholism and promiscuity as a teenager and young adult, and she is horrified to find herself following her mother's physical abuse tactics with her own two young sons. We travel with Etienne on the path of healing as she sheds her addictions and discovers ways to forge a new future with her children, a future based on love and trust.Imminently readable and inspirational.