What's the Book About?

For as long as Jocelyn can remember, she longed to be a part of a family different from the one she was born into. She wanted to be known for more than just her birth order number. She is the sixth of nine children.

In this memoir, her debut book, Jocelyn has written a series of beautifully detailed stories, beginning in her childhood, of how she came to understand herself through her family experiences. She vividly describes how she was increasingly frustrated by the boundaries that had been set by her strict, incredibly-religious parents and feared that she would never be able to break out of the restrictive mold they had sculpted for her. As the years go by, Jocelyn came to understand that she and her siblings were astoundingly different from the roles which their parents had chosen for them to play in the family and she wondered how the truth could ever be revealed. There were secrets she had to keep and feelings she had to stuff in order to contribute to what she learned was simply a façade of harmony and peace.

Now that she knows better, she shares with her readers that living in her skin has been complicated, embarrassing and unfair, yet still worth living. On her journey, she questioned which road she should take: the easiest one of staying silent and saving face or the difficult one of facing the truth and telling the stories of pain and spiritual awakening.

In this series of true stories, Jocelyn explores how matters such as racial identity, gender inequality, sexual orientation, depression and suicidal ideation all collide with her upbringing in an ultra-religious household which lacked emotional support, brewed codependency, and incited feelings of hopelessness, yet expected nothing less than outward perfection. She uses her unique voice to tell the stories that describe moments that caused her to feel conflicted, neglected and invisible. One of Nine is a compelling account of what she has seen, where she has been and how she found her truth and a reason to live.