AustLit

'What happens after you write a tell-all memoir that reveals your family’s darkest secrets?

'Renee McBryde has a really intriguing life story. Her mother and father met when they were living on the streets in Kings Cross. Her mum gave birth to Renee when she was only 15 and Renee’s father was jailed for murder just before she was born. Renee grew up being told over and over again that she had to keep the identity of her father secret and she did ... until it ended up doing her much more harm than good.

'In 2017 Renee wrote a book revealing the secret and the impact it had on her and her identity. Little did she know that the book would go on to attract sensational media attention and sell widely across Australia and the UK.
Her second book, Unravelling Us, examines what happens to a family after a tell-all memoir and its accompanying publicity is published. While Renee was busy appearing on 60 Minutes and SBS’s Insight, and being interviewed on radio and for magazines, her previous close-knit family life was imploding.

'Unravelling Us delves deeply into the behind the scenes of a family whose dysfunction becomes public knowledge and the impact that has on all of them. It looks at the complex relationships between families, especially mothers and their children, and uses stories from Renee’s work as a social worker and child protection officer in Alice Springs to look at the inherited cycles of abuse and trauma. After having such terrible role models as parents, Renee is fearful she will unconsciously repeat the patterns of parenting that she was exposed to, as she sees it happening all the time in her job. However, she also witnesses moments when a pattern is broken, in her own life and in her work, which gives her hope that her books will be of some help to others.' (Publication summary)

'On the outside Renee McBryde's life sounds not too far from normal: she grew up with a single mother and her greatest support was her loving grandmother. She went to school, she played with friends. If you fill in the details, though, it was far from normal. Her mother was 16 when she had Renee, and she was single because Renee's father was in jail for killing two men who, despite what he told Renee, he had not killed in self-defence.

'Renee grew up believing that as the daughter of a double murderer, she didn't deserve much in the way of happiness - so instead she found misery at home and in her relationships. Now she is a survivor, not just of her childhood but of the abuse that marred her adult life.

'This is her sometimes shocking, often moving, inspirational true story.' (Publication summary)