Book cover of Surviving the White Gaze: A Memoir

Book description

An Esquire Best Book of 2021

A stirring and powerful memoir from black cultural critic Rebecca Carroll recounting her painful struggle to overcome a completely white childhood in order to forge her identity as a black woman in America.

Rebecca Carroll grew up the only black person in her…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Surviving the White Gaze as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

The writing is gorgeous, but it is the story – heartbreaking at first and then, as it closes, heartwarming – that grabs you.

Rebecca Carroll, marked as black, is adopted by white parents and raised in an all-white town. Determined to learn more about herself, she sets out to reconnect with her birth parents, but what she learns is a set of hard, painful truths. As the thread slowly unspools, her white birth mother is also revealed as abusive and controlling.

Still searching for a sense of who she is, Carroll discovers her own blackness through found family, and by…

If you love Surviving the White Gaze...

Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Want books like Surviving the White Gaze?

Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Surviving the White Gaze.

Browse books like Surviving the White Gaze

Book cover of The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption
Book cover of All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir
Book cover of Jesus Land: A Memoir

Share your top 3 reads of 2026!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

181

readers submitted
so far, will you?

📚 If you like Surviving the White Gaze, you might also like...

Book cover of Sexy Selfie Nation: Standing Up for Yourself in Today's Toxic, Sexist Culture

Sexy Selfie Nation by Leora Tanenbaum,

The problem is not with the actions young women take but with the toxic, sexist conditions they are responding to.

Tanenbaum found, based on six years of interviews with young people ages 14-30, that young women are navigating a culture littered with gendered dress codes, revenge porn, and sexually explicit…

Book cover of In This Together: Connecting with Your Community to Combat the Climate Crisis

In This Together by Marianne E. Krasny,

In This Together explores how we can harness our social networks to make a real impact fighting the climate crisis. Against notions of the lone environmental crusader, Marianne E. Krasny shows us the power of "network climate action"—the idea that our own ordinary acts can influence and inspire those close…

5 book lists we think you will like!