The Invisible Girls: A Memoir

The Invisible Girls was so captivating that I read it through twice. All the people involved in Sarah's life were written about in fascinating ways. Present were humor and tragedy, hope and despair. This is a book to share with your friends, daughters and your book club.

Joanie

This is an awesome memoir. It is well written and easy to follow. Not only does the author focus on battling cancer at a young age she also talks about describes how difficult life is for a Somali refugee family.

This is a powerful story of redemption. A modern day good samaritan tale. Read it and pass it on to people you know. On second thought, buy your friends all their own copies. The profits form the sale of the book go to a great cause.

This well-written book is made up of three intertwining themes: 1) Escaping fundamentalism, 2) Fighting breast cancer, 3) The Invisible Girls from Somalia.

The second and third themes are compelling and powerful. The first theme comes off petulant. Her parents are painted as narrow minded bigots. Sarah works diligently to escape them and their bad beliefs. She sums up this theme with this pithy quote: "The first two letters of Fundamentalist are F-U." However, these are the parents who drop everything to spend weeks caring for her when she is near death and all the friends from her newly emancipated life are missing in action.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It was the first of Sarah's books I have read. We did it for our book club for this month. Parts of it were a bit hard to read, but real life is like that at times. This is definitely a book for women, and if you have had experience with breast cancer, it is amazing.

I bought this book without reading the reviews. I was curious what a 5 star book must be like. Nobel winning novels and classics don't get 5 stars. Well, I figured it out soon enough. My suspicion is that all those reviews came from the people that are in the writer's church or bastions of ancient group think. The book should be reclassified christian or religious instead of memoir. The writing was okay and some of the passages compelling, especially the ones that dealt in detail with her health struggles. But the part of the book that tries to be philosophical and/or transcendental, I found, at best, intellectually lazy and at worst cloying. In the worst of times, the main character questions are superficial and selfish. Why me, she asks about her cancer. Over and over again. Well, I thought, why not you! Just because you have an imaginary friend in the sky doesn't mean that you should be exempt from the slings and arrows of life. You are no better than any other poor son of a bitch that bad things happen to. She never asks the deeper question of her god. Are you real? Is religion a man made instrument of control? Or is it real and everything they wrote in the bible true? When she embarks on her orgy of altruism by befriending a Somali family, again I found the nuts and bolts scenes compelling. They don't know how to use a toilet or a fridge. How alien the first world is. These passages soar. But again, the writer never self reflects and asks herself the hard questions. Am I using this family the way I use my religion? To fill an unmeasurable void? Or am I so spiritually evolved that I'm helping these people because I have so much divine love to share? Considering her circumstances and how five minutes before she met them she was still asking WHY ME, I seriously doubt the latter. There's nothing wrong with grace and finding healing, but I never feel that she sees herself as these people's equal and there's something vaguely racist about the resolution. Evolved christian missionary saves the poor black savages. If you want to read an brilliant account of white people saving black Africans, read The Poisonwood Bible.

This book started out strong and interesting but trailed off into a snooze fest of unanswered questions (that I quickly lost interest in) and then a pitch for my cash. That really turned me off. I felt like I'd just been given an amped up sob story, just so that I could then be hit up for cash. (Which apparently was what this book was intended to be.) For me it pretty much ruined the book and made me question how much was exaggerated for extra pathos. It did not help that some random hooker was brought in at the end to be 'redeemed'. It came across as pure sappiness.

On the positive side, I found the author's insights and interactions in the refugee world fascinating. Among other things, I did not realize how truly foreign 'normal' daily tasks can be, and how small things like a grubby child, can be the small tip of an iceberg of problems. It also made me wonder how many other invisible people there are out there.

I wish the positives outshone the negatives, but for me they did not. This book was only ok, and I wish I'd gotten it from the library instead of purchasing it. YMMV

The Invisible Girls by Sarah Thebarge is a fascinating book of cultures, expectations, struggles and faith. Part autobiography, Invisible Girls retells author Sarah Thebarge's heroic battle with breast cancer while still a young woman in her 20s. Part biography, this book also chronicles the daily life of a young immigrant family Thebarge befriends one day on a train. Then throughout the entire book is also a thorough examination of faith in God's promises and provisions.

Thebarge was first diagnosed with cancer when she was 27 while finishing up her second Ivy League degree. Alone and heartbroken, Thebarge fought a brave and valiant battle against the disease and the many side effects of treatment. Cancer was especially aggressive for Thebarge, however she was finally able to overcome. As part of her path to recovery, Thebarge eventually left her Ivy League life behind and relocated to Portland, Oregon.

Once she arrived in Portland, Thebarge began to settle into her new life when a chance encounter on a train changed her life. Sitting across from her one day was a family of six, a young mother and her five small children. Thebarge realized they were immigrants and sensed they perhaps needed help. She quickly gathered their address before the family got off at the next stop. A few days later, Thebarge knocked on their door and was admitted into their lives.

The Invisible Girls story alternates between Thebarge's recounting of her days in cancer treatments and the retelling of life with the young family who had recently immigrated to Portland, Oregon from Somalia. Both Thebarge's story and the immigrant's story are heartbreaking and sobering. The book, however, is not as much of a downer as one might think. Thebarge was raised in a Christian home and does question God heavily throughout the book, though in the end she still clings to His promise to never leave her. Likewise, the Somali family is suffering from extreme poverty, but Thebarge and her church are able to lend a hand to the family to help them get on their feet.

This book is non-fiction and life is not always easy. Thebarge and the Somali family are real people with honest problems, concerns and values. What Thebarge has done with The Invisible Girls is extend grace into the situation. She finally gives herself grace to live a life she feels is right and to accept the health barriers she faces. She extends lots of grace to the family as she teaches them how to live in America. And through it all, God extends grace to them all as they navigate through their lives.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Jericho Books on behalf of MomCentral, however I was under no obligation to provide a positive review.

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Jericho Books. I received the book The Invisible Girls to facilitate my review. However, all opinions and thoughts expressed are my own.
The Invisible Girls is a memoir that expresses some of the struggles Sarah went through while being diagnosed with breast cancer in her twenties, the joys she discovered while helping out an invisible Somali refugee family, and finding new beginnings while realizing God never left her side.
Sarah's writing style is very honest and open and you feel as if you personally know her while reading her story. Sarah gives you a glimpse of what it feels like to be someone who feels like they are on top of the world and within an instant, their world came completely crashing down. Knowing what it is like for a women to go through the trial of having breast cancer and the hurt that comes from feeling abandoned by individuals whom she loved, Sarah gives us a little glimpse of what it is like for women to be diagnosed with breast cancer.
In going through the process of trying to heal from the inside out, Sarah by chance meets a beautiful Somali family who consists of a mother raising five young daughters on her own, in a culture completely foreign to them. Sarah learns that by giving of herself and pouring her heart, soul, and energy into this amazing Somali family (that so desperately needs her), that she begins to heal and rediscover who she really is again. In the end she realizes that she needed this Somali refugee family as much as they needed her.
I love the relationship Sarah has with Hadhi and her five young daughters. It is so beautiful to me that Sarah would not only take a chance on helping this young family out, but that she was willing to give completely of herself to help this family that to everyone else around them was "invisible". It was hard to read the struggles this family went through and know that so many other people could have helped them if they just wouldn't have turned a blind eye. That is one of the many reasons why I think that Sarah Thebarge is a wonderful individual.
As far as the technical aspect of the book, like I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed how open Sarah's writing was. Personally I didn't love some of the swear words that were included in the book. At times when she would quote someone, I feel as if the point would have come across just as strongly without using such harsh swear words. That was probably my only turn off of the book. Generally if a book swears a lot I will put it down and not continue reading it. Although, that is simply my own opinion. However, I wouldn't let that stop someone from reading this book. The Invisible Girls has such a strong message that needs to be heard by many. It is one of those books you read and walk away wanting to be a better person because of the beautiful message that you read.
Thank you Sarah for being willing to share your story with all of us. I commend you on the person you are, and I know you will continue to do many beautiful things in your life. Thank you for reminding me about what is important in life and that God truly loves all of us, no matter what walk of life we come from, and no matter what our triumphs and trials we are going through.

I liked the Invisible Girls for the most part. Especially in the beginning through the middle part, it really caught my attention, and I enjoyed reading. The story of the Somali family and her battle against cancer were interestingly intertwined. Each chapter is super short and easy to read, which I liked a lot. I liked how she told the story including the choice of words. She was boldly honest and explicit about her battle against breast cancer, the relationship with her boyfriend, and the joy and challenges while she helped the Somali family.

While I continued to read, I was curious to find out about two things. The first one was how her faith in God would change through her experience having breast cancer. She was resentful and kept saying how the loving God could do this to her, and reading the back of the book, I figured that she remained to be a Christian. But why? In chapter 76 and in other chapters here and there, she kind of answered my question, but it was subtle to me. I expected someone who went though such a powerful experience and still believes in God would give me a more persuasive answer.... It might be obvious for Christians, but not for me.

The second one was why the author also was an “invisible girl.” I can easily understand the girls from Somalia can be called the “invisible girls,” but why her? Are we all invisible?

In my opinion this book started strong and ended somewhat weak. She didn’t even mention the status of her breast cancer in the end. After the Somali family moved to Seattle, everything kind of faded, and it didn’t leave me much impression, other than she wants to contribute to these girls’ college tuition.

Although there were questions that were not answered for me, I enjoyed this book and appreciated her openness to share her life story.

Just stumbled across this at the public library, and loved it! The "invisibility" of serious illness resonated deeply - my daughter got ill her senior year of high school and was quite ill for almost 9 years, and that overlapped with 8 years of illness for me. The absolutely wonderful way Sarah, despite her excruciating physical, emotional, and spiritual struggles reached out to an "invisible" family of Somali refugees, aiding them in basic needs and instruction in the unknown-to-them ways to use thermostat, oven, washing machine, etc., reached down into my heart - as did her realization of God's presence in her anguish. I, too , know that. He is good. Thank you, Sarah.

My Take: This was a very emotional book. There was anger, sadness, grief, unbelief just to name a few of the emotions I felt while listening to this book. I could not imagine what if would be like to have to undergo a mastectomy at such a young age. I felt for Sarah as she related what she felt as she had to undergo the surgeries and treatments for this disease and then also to have to deal with others reactions to her diagnosis was horrible also.

I was inspired when she relayed the way that she met the family of Somali refugees and how she befriended them and helped them to navigate our culture and all the things that we take for granted she helped them to learn, like turning on the heat or turning on the oven or even using the bathroom. Sarah's willingness to reach out and help these refuges has inspired me to be more willing to reach out and help those around me.

As the summary says above there is some adult language but it all was quite understandable in the context that it was used.

I thought that Kirsten Potter did an excellent job with the narration.

I recommend this book but I would suggest not listening to it around small children because of the language.

I received a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion from Oasis Audio.

What a good, well-crafted read THE INVISIBLE GIRLS is. Here are two stories deftly wound around each other, both drawing the reader further up and further in. The opening chapter introduces the most recent setting: On a transit train in Portland, Oregon, Sarah Thebarge happens upon a desperately poor Somali Muslim woman whose preschool daughters gravitate toward Thebarge, even snuggling onto her lap. What prompted Thebarge to ask Hadhi for the family's address? Why did she knock on the door of their barren apartment a few days later?

After this brief introduction, Thebarge backtracks, filling in the details of her earlier life --- childhood scenes from a conservative parsonage, where she absorbed stories of a fearsome God whose mercy remained veiled to her psyche, where she dreamed of a career not confined by the community's gender-based expectations. Though she doesn't name it until toward the end of the book, in some ways she grew up as an "invisible girl."

As a young adult, with a bachelor's degree from a Christian liberal arts college, a physician's assistant degree from Yale, and credits toward a journalism degree from Columbia --- her future well mapped, anticipating marriage to her beloved --- her life spiraled downward. A double mastectomy --- a perceived loss of sexuality --- complicated by a cancer recurrence and sepsis "left her physically, financially, and spiritually depleted" and quite alone in the world, though her parents should take a bow for their stalwart support. Thebarge's writing is lyrical and disarmingly honest at every turn. Her being a single woman feeds into the story. After her first surgery, did a small church really promise dinners every night for two weeks --- but then no one delivered or even called with an excuse for the no-show? Did her soul mate say he just couldn't take it anymore and walk out?

Physically compromised, emotionally strung out, angry, and feeling abandoned by God, the church and friends, she herself "ran away," from New Haven to Portland --- a city chosen because a few college friends lived there --- to start a new life. Two years later, having stabilized enough to contemplate and reject a good job back East, Thebarge met Hadhi and her five daughters, aged nine to three, subsisting in empty rooms: two mattresses, one blanket, a TV from Goodwill.

The stories of a refugee family's attempts to assimilate into modern American culture are both humorous and heartbreaking. There's an oven and thermostat in the apartment. But what's their use? Soap, toothpaste, silverware? Thebarge introduces the mother and children to life skills and basic conveniences we so take for granted. She introduces her readers to a piece of urban America that we want to ignore. She addresses the desperate need she sees, involving her church's outreach ministry, governmental social services, and a circle of friends to bring order out of chaos and hope to the hopeless. In living out her rekindled faith, she draws Hadhi's family up out of their "invisible" status among us, reminding them --- and us --- of being in the presence of "the God Who Sees."

I'm doing a pathetically poor job of relating the flavor of this wonderful book. Just read it. For the pathos. For the humor. For the turn of phrase. For the inspiration to spur involvement not on a distant mission field but in one's own neighborhood.

Reviewed by Evelyn Bence

When you find a book that blends two stories together smoothly, you've found a good book. When you find a book that is heart-wrenching and inspiring, you've found a wonderful story.

Author Sarah Thebarge has created a wonderfully, good book in THE INVISIBLE GIRLS: A Memoir.

Narrator Kirsten Potter does an excellent job bringing the story to life. Her vocalization of the emotions is an added delight to this mesmerizing story the author tells.

At 27, Sarah Thebarge's life was great - she had an Ivy League degree, was on the way to having the successful career she dreamed of and had gotten engaged to her handsome boyfriend. Then her life was turned upside down when she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. After surgery, months of grueling treatments and a number of losses in her life, Sarah decided to start over across the country in Portland, Oregon.

Once there, Sarah began trying to rebuild her life. A chance encounter on a train turned her world upside down again. This time, it was in a good way. She came to know and care about a young Somali refugee, Hadhi, and her five young daughters. Hadhi's abusive husband had left them and they were on the brink of starvation as they were `invisible' to their neighbors and the new world around them. As Sarah began to help Hadhi and the girls adjust to their new country, the family helped Sarah adjust to her new life after cancer.

I was touched first by how the author was able to hold onto her faith despite times of despair, anger and doubt. I was inspired by how she overcame all that she did and was able to give so much despite her own losses.

Second, I was amazed at the author's care and concern for Hadhi and the girls. She was there when they needed someone the most and she continues to help them. Portions of the proceeds from THE INVISIBLE GIRLS goes toward the girls' college education.

THE INVISIBLE GIRLS is a beautiful and poignant story that will tug at your heartstrings one minute and make you laugh the next. It's a story that will have you re-examining things about your own life. This is a raw emotional story of not only surviving, but learning to live.

The end of the audio also includes an interview with author Sarah Thebarge that is both very touching and enlightening.

FTC Full Disclosure - This audio book was sent to me by the publisher in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

Thebarge's memoir is the most moving story I have read in a long time. She seamlessly weaves together the story of her battle with breast cancer with her battle to connect with and help a Somali refuge family. I found myself completely engrossed in each tale, not wanting either to end. In fact, I stayed up well past midnight, weeping into a pile of tissues as I finished the book because I just couldn't put it down. I found myself rooting for Sarah, wanting her to find a way out of the darkness. I found myself rooting for this Somali family, praying that they would find the help they needed as they adjusted to a new world. Sarah's story will warm your heart and break it at the same time. I'm not sure when I've felt so many different emotions while reading a story, and I'm an English teacher who has read plenty of them! Sometimes I read a book and feel disappointed, like I wasted hours of my life that I can never get back. Other times, I enjoy reading a book, but don't feel any different than I did before I picked it up. This book has enriched my life, and I am a better human for the hours I spent with it. I am already planning on reading it again!

Being from Portland myself, I had heard about The Invisible Girls in the paper when it came out, and from a couple of other sources. Having a heart for--but little actual experience with--working with immigrants, I was curious to hear Sarah's story. Once I finally got around to reading it, I was a little surprised that the majority of the book was about her struggles with breast cancer, fundamentalism, relationships, God, and the church. Not that this was a problem; I appreciated the opportunity to walk with her through several hellacious years of illness, which was insightful. The writing was solid, but not amazing; nonetheless, the story pulled me along, and I finished the book in a couple days.

The story about her relationship with the Somali family was interesting, and the sort of story we all fantasize about living out: helping hapless immigrants acclimate to life in the modern world. (For more on this subject, read Danielle Mayfield's "Assimilate or Go Home". She is also from Portland.)

What I found unsettling--and ultimately unconvincing--was her wrestling with God, or the concept of God, and his relationship to her illness. Throughout the book, she weeps and laments over and over again: "Where is God in all of this? I wouldn't wish this illness on my worst enemy, so why would God do this to someone he says he loves? Why doesn't he heal me? Why has the church abandoned me at my lowest hour? How could my perfect Christian boyfriend cheat on me? Why?" These are fair and justifiable questions in her circumstances.

Her understanding of God shifts over time from an angry fundamentalist God, to a loving and gracious God, based entirely (it seems) on what other people (usually men?) tell her about God's character. But nowhere in her story does God actually show up, do anything, say anything. It seems her persistence in believing in God, and going to church--in spite of her deep disappointments--are an outgrowth of her upbringing, a habit that she can't quite kick. Not a bad habit, necessarily, but the story does leave one wondering: after living through fundamentalism, breast cancer (more than once), pneumonia, breakups, identity theft, abandonment, and more, with no evidence of God's presence or action, why do you still believe that God even exists?

After dozens of chapters lamenting God's complete absence in her s***ty circumstances, of weeping at the altar week after week, of getting no response, there is, toward the end, a little chapter where she decides to believe that God hadn't been absent after all, but in reality had been with her all along. And that's good enough for her.

But that wasn't really good enough. In fact, it was unconvincing, flaccid, and also entirely predictable. Reading through the book, I knew that at some point she would have to reconcile with God somehow, in order to wrap up the story tidily and get it published by a Christian press. She did so, but not convincingly. Furthermore, for her to end the book by telling a woman of the night that God loves her dearly also felt...hollow. Like something that she'd been taught at church, but not experienced in her actual life.

If good writing is writing that shows, not tells, this book doesn't make the grade on this particular point. What it showed was awful suffering in the absence of a caring God; what it told was a little too much like Pollyana in the end.

This book was moving. I agree with the other reviewers about not knowing it had a religious tone to it, would've been nice if this was mentioned in the description. While I do believe in God, I don't like books that seem to push it on you. I did enjoy Sarah's story, and found myself near tears several times throughout the book. She is really inspiring, and her story will really motivate you to not feel sorry for yourself. I liked how the book went back and forth between her own experiences and meeting the Somali refugees. It was a quick read, finished it in a day.

Decimated by breast cancer, Sarah has decided to start her life over, in Portland Oregon. While riding the bus, she encounters a young mother and her daughters. Hadhi, a Somali refugee, and her five young girls are barely keeping her family afloat. She speaks very little English, is confused by seemingly simple things, i.e. how to use the stove. Sarah steps up and begins helping the family, showing them basic American survival skills.

Overall, I thought this book was both heartbreaking and uplifting. It was hard to read about the decimation of her young body and the toll that cancer took on her emotional and physical state. Despite her struggles, she essentially adopted a refugee family, giving everything she had to help them survive. Overall, I thought the book was well written and well paced.

Unflinchingly raw and honest and humbling, it is impossible to read The Invisible Girls with dry eyes. This painful memoir of true loss and gain by Sarah Thebarge deftly balances the ravaging evils of breast cancer with the purity of a woman stretching far beyond her own skin to be a Saint to those in desperate need. This beautiful book is a one-night experience, though through Thebarge’s skillful writing and respectful tone, one can linger through the work with a vivid and life-changing picture of Sarah’s experience of faith, hope, and love, and never be the same for doing so.

Sarah Thebarge's THE INVISIBLE GIRLS is a memoir with two major threads: the battle Thebarge herself has with an aggressive form of breast cancer in her late twenties, and her friendship with a Somali woman and her children.

Thebarge grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania as the daughter of a minister. She wanted to study medicine, and did so, but her course in life has apparently led to both medicine and writing. After going through treatment for the breast cancer that damaged both her body and her soul, she relocates to Portland, Oregon. Once there, she meets the aforementioned family from Somalia - a mother with five daughters. The husband has abandoned the family, and the mother and daughters know next to nothing about how the facilities in their apartment work, U.S. customs, or even some simple hygiene. The school-age daughters even fare better with learning English and arithmetic than the mother does.

Thebarge learns a great deal through helping this family, in particular, gratitude for what she has, and readers of this work will as well.

I have high praise for many things about this work, but the one thing I found troubling was a slight lack of clarity in my advance copy concerning whether a particular segment is during the time Thebarge is at her sickest or after her move to Portland. A little editing prior to the final copy (chapter headings, please!) would help a great deal to solve this problem.

Who I am: Instructor of composition at a two-year college who also holds a library science degree
How I obtained this book: Advance copy from the publisher.

Remarkable story. It has been years since I've had such an experience reading a book. I wanted to slow down to savor every image, every joke, every word, every syllable and at the same time simultaneously gulp it all down in one instant. This book will crack heart wide open if you let it. It will change your life if you let it. I look forward to reading anything this talented woman puts forth.

In the dictionary, next to the definition of The Golden Rule there is a picture of Sarah Thebarge.
Well, there really isn't.
But there should be.
I really didn't intend to read The Invisible Girls in one sitting. After all, the cover proclaims that this is A Memoir. Boring, right? I can assure you that The Invisible Girls is anything but boring. The Invisible Girls is a compelling call to all women to join as a sisterhood. Sarah seems like the kind of girl I could be friends with. She seems so real. You've got to read this book!

I received a copy of this book to review. The opinions shared here are 100% mine.

A friend recommended this book and I downloaded the sample. After finishing another book I re-read the sample and went on to buy the e-book. At first I thought this author would whine her way through the story (justifiably) and then as her tale unfolded I saw that supposition turn to ash. Sarah comes up on the other side of her misery holding onto the six lives that enabled her to see the work that the Lord had been doing all along. I was so incredibly relieved that Sarah, a very dimly burning wick, did not let her faith collapse. So many look only to science and reason for strength. May God continue to bless her life and valiant efforts on behalf of Invisible Girls everywhere!

Its interesting how a sudden change in fortune or as in this case health can set you on a journey that alters the quintessential aspects of a person's soul and belief system. Sarah Thebarge's account of being diagnosed with cancer and her chance encounter with a somali family is one of those stories. This beautifully crafted memoir is a journey that cuts you to the bone as you share the challenges that both she and the somali family faces. An interesting comparison between seemingly opposite lives and lifestyles.

The book is poignent, funny, and heartbreaking, one of those page-turners that takes you through the emotional spectrum. Sarah weaves together two narratives: her story of being diagnosed at 27 with breast cancer and the treatment that followed, and her subsequent move from Connecticut to Oregon, where she befriended a family of Somali refugees. Over the course of several months, she formed a deep relationship with Hadhi and her five daughters, Fahri, Abdallah, Sadaka, Lelo, and Chaki. Sarah helped them adjust to life in America while, at the same time, they helped Sarah heal from the psychological and emotional wounds her cancer and fundamentalist Christian upbringing left behind.

One of my favorite vignettes in the book is situated in one of the most mundane tasks most Americans take for granted: adjusting the thermostat.

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Why is it so cold in here? I wondered, realizing that I was still wearing my coat because I was cold, too. "Hadhi, your house is cold," I said, pointing to Chaki and Lelo, whose teeth were chattering.

Hadhi looked at me helplessly, as if to say there was nothing she could do.

I looked around the living room. There was vent on the wall, but no thermostat or "on" switch. After looking around the apartment for a while, I found the thermostat in the hallway and turned it on. Warm air blew out of the vent in the living room, and the girls began running around the house screaming that I had set their house on fire.

"Everybody relax!" I said, laughing. "It's not a fire; it's heat."

We sat around the vent that was blowing out warm air as though it were a roaring fire. As the girls warmed their firgid fingers and toes against the hot metal grate, I scolded myself. I'd been visiting the family a few times a week for the past month. How could I not have noticed until now they didn't know how to turn on the heat?
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One of the markers of invisibility is the inability to fully participate in a system without outside help. For Hadhi and her family, this was manifest in simple things, like not knowing how to use a thermostat, and in more complex things, like trying to apply for government housing assistance while remaining hidden from an abusive ex-husband. Sarah stepped in from the outside and help make them visible.

Similarly, Sarah's fundamentalist upbringing created a system in which she believed that her cancer was an expression of God's anger toward her for something she must have done, though she couldn't identify what that might be. She is painfully honest about the lack of support she received from her church, her fiancee, and her Christian friends. Sarah became invisible to the church and invisible to that God. It was Hadhi and her daughters who helped Sarah become visible again, but you'll have to read the book to find out how.

This memoir demonstrates some amazing topics that Thebarge finds very important. In the book she discusses her battle with breast cancer and God at such a young age. She felt abandoned by everyone. She also tells the story about how she met the Somali refugees, who she later refers to as the Invisible Girls, and how they made a huge impact on her life. Thebarge cleverly jumps from telling about her college, graduate school, work, and her love to talking about the Invisible Girls. At around the same points in both stories you start to see Thebarge feel alone and useless. At the same points in both stories you see her find herself, with the help of others. The book was so well done and Thebarge really is an inspiration to all "Invisible People" out there.

I don't normally like non-fiction, but Thebarge's experiences were so interesting and almost unbelievable that I found myself genuinely enjoying reading this book. I HIGHLY recommend this memoir, especially for teenagers, like me, and all those looking for a little extra hope in their lives.

Sarah Thebarge's The Invisible Girls: A Memoir is a testament to endurance, hope, and selflessness. Sarah grew up a pastor's child in a conservative Christian family. As a young adult, her future seemed bright. A bright student, she earned a pair of Ivy League degrees in journalism and medicine. Mr. Right seemed close to proposing. That is until cancer derailed the trajectory of her life and she found herself on the brink of death. After narrowly surviving, she fled her life and found herself in Portland, OR, as far away as she could get. It was there she chanced upon a family of Somali refugee girls on the commuter train. Sarah took a chance and befriended the family. As their improbably friendship developed, Sarah discovered their commonality. She too was a refugee from her own life. She too was oppressed the religious fundamentalism of her tribe, particularly regarding the suffocating roles assigned to women. God was a harsh patriarch who treated her in ways she could not treat her worst enemy. Through the process of losing her life to help this struggling family, she recovers her faith and a God worth worshipping.

Sarah writes in a nimble and understated style. Her characters like Vonnegut's: Potato chip thin and irresistible. You cannot stop at one, two, or twelve. She recounts each set back, trial, and betrayal with journalistic objectivity, leaving room for the reader to mourn and get angry for her. Her deceptions of despair and hope are equally believable, making her one of the promising voices in the genre of spiritual memoir. I suspect that she, along with Mike Stavlund, are among the brightest in the next generation of spiritual memoirist that will push the genre forward with as much force as Donald Miller and Anne Lamott did a decade ago. This is not to say Sarah's voice is derivative of either of these giants. Her voice was uniquely forged on the anvil of her suffering, her wisdom was hard won. I look forward to reading more of Thebarge's work. She has a voice that deserves to be heard for years to come.

I had the joy of hearing Sarah Thebarge speak about her journey at the Faith and Culture Writers Conference in Oregon. I was mesmerized by her story. It's a precious story of sacrifice, understanding, joy in the midst of pain and pure delight at new beginnings. Her writing style kept me turning the pages until the very end. Thank you for giving your heart unselfishly to a family that is now your very own. Looking forward to reading more!!

I'd downloaded this onto my Kindle before vacation. Less than 3% into the book I quit reading, which I almost never do. Raunchy, profane writing with a tawdry story line seemed to be the author's primary goal. Nothing in the reviews warned readers this was an X rated read.