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Twine: A Memoir
How far would you go to overcome a dark and tragic legacy for a chance at redemption?
Composed from a collection of haunting and colorful memories, Twine chronicles the dark journey of a broken family spanning generations.
Sliding effortlessly between past and present, this is the story of Dorriah Burke—a girl raised among California avocados and a bewildering array of dysfunctional family members. As children, trapped between their alcoholic mother and violent father, Dorriah and her brother are faced with untenable choices and lives of ever-increasing lunacy and sorrow.
Now an adult, Dorriah finally escapes across the country with her own daughter in an attempt to restart her life, but the miles aren’t enough. Grief-stricken by her mother’s rapidly declining health, her father’s shocking choices, and her brother’s inability to help, she is forced to make a unlock her past and her only hope to overcome her personal demons, or protect her only child from the dark labyrinth of her family history.
Twine is a seductive memoir of shocking narrative power and sweeping honesty. Written with a clever and profane wit and populated by unforgettable and profoundly relatable characters, it is a beautiful narrative that’s impossible to put down—a story of agony and loss, betrayal and love, survival and reinvention that never allows the reader to rest for an instant as the story ruthlessly hurtles towards its surprising conclusion.
Composed from a collection of haunting and colorful memories, Twine chronicles the dark journey of a broken family spanning generations.
Sliding effortlessly between past and present, this is the story of Dorriah Burke—a girl raised among California avocados and a bewildering array of dysfunctional family members. As children, trapped between their alcoholic mother and violent father, Dorriah and her brother are faced with untenable choices and lives of ever-increasing lunacy and sorrow.
Now an adult, Dorriah finally escapes across the country with her own daughter in an attempt to restart her life, but the miles aren’t enough. Grief-stricken by her mother’s rapidly declining health, her father’s shocking choices, and her brother’s inability to help, she is forced to make a unlock her past and her only hope to overcome her personal demons, or protect her only child from the dark labyrinth of her family history.
Twine is a seductive memoir of shocking narrative power and sweeping honesty. Written with a clever and profane wit and populated by unforgettable and profoundly relatable characters, it is a beautiful narrative that’s impossible to put down—a story of agony and loss, betrayal and love, survival and reinvention that never allows the reader to rest for an instant as the story ruthlessly hurtles towards its surprising conclusion.
304 pages, Paperback
Published July 2, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 5, 2019
Raw, emotional, suspenseful, insightful memoir of a young woman living with an alcoholic mother and abusive father. Somehow, she managed to hide her predicament from the entire outside world. Despite her upbringing, she became a successful businesswoman and mother. The author writes with a clear voice, and the reader struggles along with her as she faces difficult choices.
October 13, 2025
Twine is a raw, gripping memoir that pulls you deep into the heart of generational trauma and the fight for redemption. With unflinching honesty and sharp wit, Dorriah’s story is both heartbreaking and hopeful a powerful testament to resilience, survival, and the complexity of family. An unforgettable, emotionally charged read that lingers long after the final page.
December 26, 2025
Please be prepared for graphic descriptions of child abuse. Well written memoir, and I applaud the courage of the author to survive and thrive through this. However, not everyone will be comfortable reading this account.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 21, 2020
Author Dorriah Rogers shares her life story cemented in a traumatic childhood in Twine: A Memoir. Jumping around from childhood to her college years to adulthood, Rogers shares the harshest and most heartbreaking details of her life.
In the first few lines, Rogers writes of her stability of her life now yet warns of her intention to spill all of the secrets of her past that even her closest friends never knew about. Then, she proceeds to do just that, sharing stories of physical abuse by her father, emotional neglect by her mother, two failed marriages, a bout with cancer, and more.
Despite all of her hardships and setbacks, though, she is able to find comfort and stability in having pulled herself up by her riding bootstraps and raising a daughter who will never have to know the deplorable living conditions and constant fear in which she herself grew up. But in her refusal to repeat the past, she has to purge herself of its power without forgetting it altogether.
Opinion:
Twine is a perfect memoir, as compelling as any celebrity’s and as well-written as any bestselling author. Rogers pours out her soul in intricately long, reflective sentences, which dig deep to not only paint a picture of her external memories but also what each moment felt like to her internally. She’s tragic without being melodramatic. She’s detailed without droning on. Most of all, she’s as honest about her own flaws as she is about her family’s.
Every violent encounter with Dorriah’s abusive father is heart pounding and suspenseful, always ending worse than you’d expect. He’s not a redeeming figure in any sense, nor should he be as he’s seen through his traumatized daughter’s eyes.
Likewise, Rogers’ mother’s descent into alcoholism and total submissiveness to her abusive husband ultimately destroys her, and her dying years become the nucleus of Twine, perhaps giving back some of the humanity that was taken from her in that final era of her life. And Rogers’ recognition that her younger brother bore the brunt of it was admirable in transferring the reader’s sympathy and in giving him credit where credit was due.
I recommend this book to fans of Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle or any reader who can handle harsh, true stories that prove the power of human endurance and make those who have experienced similar upbringings feel less alone in their own, horrific memories.
In the first few lines, Rogers writes of her stability of her life now yet warns of her intention to spill all of the secrets of her past that even her closest friends never knew about. Then, she proceeds to do just that, sharing stories of physical abuse by her father, emotional neglect by her mother, two failed marriages, a bout with cancer, and more.
Despite all of her hardships and setbacks, though, she is able to find comfort and stability in having pulled herself up by her riding bootstraps and raising a daughter who will never have to know the deplorable living conditions and constant fear in which she herself grew up. But in her refusal to repeat the past, she has to purge herself of its power without forgetting it altogether.
Opinion:
Twine is a perfect memoir, as compelling as any celebrity’s and as well-written as any bestselling author. Rogers pours out her soul in intricately long, reflective sentences, which dig deep to not only paint a picture of her external memories but also what each moment felt like to her internally. She’s tragic without being melodramatic. She’s detailed without droning on. Most of all, she’s as honest about her own flaws as she is about her family’s.
Every violent encounter with Dorriah’s abusive father is heart pounding and suspenseful, always ending worse than you’d expect. He’s not a redeeming figure in any sense, nor should he be as he’s seen through his traumatized daughter’s eyes.
Likewise, Rogers’ mother’s descent into alcoholism and total submissiveness to her abusive husband ultimately destroys her, and her dying years become the nucleus of Twine, perhaps giving back some of the humanity that was taken from her in that final era of her life. And Rogers’ recognition that her younger brother bore the brunt of it was admirable in transferring the reader’s sympathy and in giving him credit where credit was due.
I recommend this book to fans of Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle or any reader who can handle harsh, true stories that prove the power of human endurance and make those who have experienced similar upbringings feel less alone in their own, horrific memories.
January 21, 2020
Twine is a poignant memoir centered around Dorriah Rogers as she shares the most honest and eye-opening moments in her life. She gives the readers her soul, inviting them into a world filled with dysfunction, abuse, and as puzzling as it may seem, love. Rogers unpacks her baggage and states, “It was the telling of this story that allowed me to remove that backpack of horrors from my shoulders. It was the writing of the words, the release of the shame, that was ultimately cathartic and healing.”
Twine: A Memoir sheds light on the connection between a family and how each person’s actions cause a ripple effect eventually leading to the realization that your past doesn’t have to consume you. Take the lessons you’ve learned and use those to not repeat the same mistakes going forward.
Acceptance and honesty are two of the themes within this memoir. Although it has taken time, Rogers has chosen to accept and forgive herself for what occurred in her life for the sake of her daughter and herself. She strips off the bandages, revealing some damaging and hurtful moments from her past. She is broken but has chosen to mend those pieces as best she can while letting others who may have been through something similar know that they’re not alone.
I had a couple issues with this memoir. Some chapters didn’t add to the overall meaning of the book and could have been omitted or combined with other sections, which would still have had the same effect. The second issue was it became a bit difficult to follow along and understand the unfolding of events, but that could be because Twine was not written in chronological order. If it had been, it would have made reading it a bit easier. Despite those two issues, Twine: A Memoir is an efficacious and heartfelt read.
Twine: A Memoir sheds light on the connection between a family and how each person’s actions cause a ripple effect eventually leading to the realization that your past doesn’t have to consume you. Take the lessons you’ve learned and use those to not repeat the same mistakes going forward.
Acceptance and honesty are two of the themes within this memoir. Although it has taken time, Rogers has chosen to accept and forgive herself for what occurred in her life for the sake of her daughter and herself. She strips off the bandages, revealing some damaging and hurtful moments from her past. She is broken but has chosen to mend those pieces as best she can while letting others who may have been through something similar know that they’re not alone.
I had a couple issues with this memoir. Some chapters didn’t add to the overall meaning of the book and could have been omitted or combined with other sections, which would still have had the same effect. The second issue was it became a bit difficult to follow along and understand the unfolding of events, but that could be because Twine was not written in chronological order. If it had been, it would have made reading it a bit easier. Despite those two issues, Twine: A Memoir is an efficacious and heartfelt read.
December 29, 2019
This story is heartbreaking. I want to meet the author just to give her a hug. The abuse of the author’s father to both her and her brother is unforgivable. The fact that the author survives is against all odds. The book is written in a present to past back and forth format. So, as I was reading, rooting for the situation to change, because of the format, I knew it wouldn’t. What I learned: horses, the high school counselor, the Mormon Family who asked no questions, the Denny’s waitress...I need to be more like them.
February 28, 2020
Read my full review on LitPick: https://litpick.com/review/twine-memo...
January 25, 2020
Absolutely brilliantly written. A very honest and heartbreaking story.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews