*Disclaimer: Guiltless book reviews do not contain spoilers. Instead, we review how the book made us feel.

‘A jaw-dropping and thrilling real-life adventure on the high seas for a girl who just craved normality and finally found her way back to it’ SARAH BROWN

Aged just seven, Suzanne Heywood set sail with her parents and brother on a three-year voyage around the world. What followed turned instead into a decade-long way of life, through storms, shipwrecks, reefs and isolation, with little formal schooling. No one else knew where they were most of the time and no state showed any interest in what was happening to the children.

That’s not a spoiler, that’s what you will find on the blurb. Now let me tell you about the emotional rip I was carried out to sea by.

Wavewalker by Suzanne Heywood had me constantly questioning her mother and fathers parenting choices. I was consumed by the father’s desire to replicate Captain Cook’s third voyage; I understand that becoming a parent doesn’t mean you lose all your previous hopes and dreams but gosh, this decision had a pretty strong impact on the health and wellbeing of the entire family, not to mention their future opportunities.

Reading a memoir through the lens of a child now woman, we are shown how children view certain situations differently to how they may have actually played out. I adored Heywood’s commitment to writing her truth and her version of events. I was and still am impressed with her resilience and ruthlessness. There were many times though (insert parent voice) when I wished I could know the events as remembered by the parents; what drove them to make certain decisions? How often did they talk about the risks? (This month's Book Club event is going to be interesting).

As if sailing around the world and living on the ocean wasn’t enough, it’s the relationships between young Suzanne and her parents that often causes distress - well it caused me distress. Again, it makes me want to know more about her parents’ upbringing.

Wavewalker: Breaking Free by Suzanne Heywood is a fascinating and disturbing must read that I guiltlessly recommend one hundred times over.

T x