I'm not broken : a memoir /

Leon debuts with a staggering tale of survival in this raw account of his youth as a sex worker. The child of working-class Mexican immigrants in 1980s California, Leon was bullied relentlessly by his white peers at school and, at age 11, was raped by a storekeeper who would molest and traffic him for years. Embittered by his own closeness to his mother--whose love, he writes, "turn me into a sissy"--Leon turned to drugs in his teens to dull his pain, and began offering up his body for money to fulfill "the masculine male Latino sexual fantasy of white men." As he offers an unflinching account of his drug addiction ("I did more lines of crystal... smoked more heroin"), Leon renders in tender prose his mother's unflagging support, a constant that remained even when her own health began to fail her. Still, it wasn't until the author discovered "a whole world of Latinos I had not been exposed to" at a college event that he began his difficult path toward sobriety, found a home in his queerness, and eventually made his way to Harvard. Despite the grimness of his subject matter, Leon's story of resilience pulsates with verve and breathtaking grace. The result is a gripping portrait of perseverance that radiates with humanity. (Aug.)

Leon is an abuse survivor and has written a powerful and heartbreaking coming-of-age memoir. Born to working-class, Mexican immigrants in San Diego, Leon's childhood was severely interrupted when he was raped by a shopkeeper at the age of 11. The encounter triggered a downward spiral into drugs, alcohol, and prostitution before graduating high school. Despite being disregarded by the systems put in place to help abuse survivors recover, Leon found a way to help himself thrive on his own with help from supportive people he met along the way. Leon's difficult and emotional journey from childhood to Harvard graduate is filled with overcoming obstacles such as poverty, racism, drug and alcohol addiction, and sexual abuse. Leon's journey leads to figuring out his own identity, coming to terms with his sexuality, and using his voice to help others who are suffering in similar ways. VERDICT A raw, emotional memoir filled with highs and lows. The inspirational ending gives readers hope when Leon uses his self-will and determination to change and accept the love from those around him.--Leah Fitzgerald

A Mexican American social impact consultant looks back with raw honesty at his high-risk youth in San Diego in the 1980s and '90s. Leon opens this wrenching story with a significant triumph: his 2001 graduation from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. The son of immigrants from the Sierra Madra region of Durango, the author endured his elderly father's abuse while his mother worked multiple low-paying jobs to feed her children. "While she was at work," he writes, "he would beat my brother and me with belts and TV wire hangers." Born in 1974, Leon grew up in a diverse, pre-gentrified urban San Diego, where people still kept gardens and farm animals. Labeled a nerd by his unhelpful brother, the author was bullied in school for his intelligence, social awkwardness, and Mexican heritage. After chronicling this harassment, Leon harrowingly describes how, at age 11, he was subjected to violent sexual abuse at the hands of a shopkeeper. Even more shocking, over the course of the next three years, he was "pimped out" by a band of sexual predators. "Until I was 14," he writes, "I would have a few hundred sex partners." Leon sought to numb the daily terror, shame, and self-loathing with drugs and alcohol, somehow managing to get through school despite being "high all the time." Readers will be astonished by Leon's ability to survive such unimaginable abuse, and he capably shows how a unique support system--his devoted friend Ariyel; a community college adviser; his Narcotics Anonymous sponsor--was vital to his ability to endure and eventually flourish. Following college and graduate school, Leon has worked with many nonprofits benefitting at-risk youth, and he has built thousands of mixed-income housing via his role as a real estate developer for Bank of America. Some readers may struggle with some of the narrative's graphic depictions, but this book is a viscerally moving story of inspiring transformation. A remarkable story of fortitude and personal transformation. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.