"Jen Knox has accomplished what so many memoirists do not - she told her story in a clear, unsentimental voice with lovely prose that read like a well-crafted novel. The grit and honesty of her troubled youth shares the stage with humor and hope. From her brief stint as a stripper, to her alcohol abuse, to her fears of mental illness, the author is open and entirely unafraid to expose the soft underbelly of herself and her family. One of the most remarkable things about this memoir is that the author never so much as hints at self-pity or solicits sympathy from her readers. Instead, she tells the sometimes simple, sometimes complex, and oftentimes raw story of how she maneuvered through her troubled youth and emerged to be the woman she is today." –Beth Hoffman, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt
"Jen Knox is an exceptionally gifted storyteller, who can take the events of the past and craft them invariably into engaging and compelling narratives." -Phillip Lopate, author of Notes on Sontag
"With her unique voice, Jen tells the poignant, yet raw, story of her journey to adulthood, living on the streets as a runaway and her ultimate struggle to establish her own identity as a woman who truly values herself. This is one of those books that lingers long after the last page." -Heather McIntosh, author of Small Animals First
"Jen’s a runner, a runaway. Following in the footsteps of her great grandmother, Glory, who defiantly set out on her own near the same young age, and finding commonalities of mental illnesses among the women in her family, Jen must-ve realized her course was set out for her organically.
"In the writing of Musical Chairs, a memoir blatant and unapologetic, Jen attempts to make sense of herself within the larger family history. Yet, for all of the similarities Jen discovered between herself and Glory, there is at least one difference: Glory ran away from family, while Jen-s running brought the both of them back." -Jennifer Lynne Roberts, playwright and writer, author of Beekeeper and Book of Taos
"This true tale of grit, survival and eventual rebirth of the psyche is engaging and inspirational, even to a small-town girl like me." -Gretchen A. Phillips, Pearson Education
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