Deeply moved by the accuracy and realism of this story, I first realized how lucky I am to have a mother who has told me “I love you” almost every day since I was born. Then I became aware of the number of people around me who have suffered or are still suffering from not being in that situation. “According to experts, 20% of the population grew up with a ‘toxic’ parent,” we read on the back cover. Sophie Adriansen is one of them; she drew inspiration from her own story to write it. “It took me a very long time to become aware of this maternal toxicity,” she explains. “ I felt like a failure in my mother-daughter relationship. I had to confront this idea that you are necessarily an ungrateful daughter if you question your mother’s point of view, if you don’t say ‘yes’ to everything, if you set limits. I had to feel ready to assert myself with my mother, against my mother, and that took time.”
