SEPTEMBER 2019 - AudioFile
Ryan Dostie pulls no punches in narrating her raw, mesmerizing memoir. She entered the army right after high school because it seemed to be the road to freedom for a young woman raised in a strict Christian community. What she discovered in her military experience was alcohol, and what followed was a rape that no one believed happened because she had had too much to drink at the time. She keeps her emotions in check when she speaks of her service in Iraq and the rape, but the tension in her voice suggests her subsequent struggles with PTSD. Dostie provides a compelling account of experiences that are all too common among women in our nation’s military. E.E.S. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
03/25/2019
In the sparse landscape of war memoirs by female soldiers, Dostie’s resolute, literary account of her five years in the army sets a benchmark. Raised in a New England Christian community, Dostie enlisted in the army in 2000 right out of high school. Promises made by recruiters of an easy basic training were crushed when Dostie realized women “are shiny and new and very much disliked” in army combat training. She studied languages and was steered toward Persian, or Farsi, one of the “weird languages”—until 9/11 made her “linguistically relevant.” Six months after posting to a predominantly male tactical unit at Fort Polk, Louisiana, in 2002, she was raped by another solder. Dostie reported the assault, trusting “father figures” in her chain of command to deliver justice, but her case was found to be unsubstantiated and she was ostracized by her peers. Deployment to Baghdad in 2003 provided the distraction of violence; armed with an M16, she discovered “Iraq is the perfect place for rage.” After leaving active duty in 2005, she grappled with PTSD until marriage and motherhood anchored her enough to “live in the interims” of sanity and push forward. Dostie writes powerfully in this raw, explosive memoir. Agent: Eve Attermann, WME. (June)
From the Publisher
A 2019 New England Book Awards Finalist
Longlisted for the 2019 Outstanding Works of Literature (OWL) Awards
An Esquire Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
A Bustle 21 New Memoirs That Will Inspire, Motivate, and Captivate You This Summer
A BookRiot 50 of the Best Books to Read This Summer
A PureWow Books we Can't Wait to Read in June
A Patch.com 10 Best Books to Read in June
"Urgent and necessary."——Esquire
"Rape victims must yell, cry and fight, says the Army that trained us for years to be silent, strong and obedient."—New York Times
"FORMATION is a brilliant addition to the memoirs of war. With grounded and elegant prose Dostie narrates her harrowing journey into combat and through the violent quagmire of Military Sexual Trauma. We should all read this heroic and timely book."—Anthony Swofford, New York Times bestselling author of Jarhead
"Raw, explosive...Dostie writes powerfully...In the sparse landscape of war memoirs by female soldiers, Dostie's resolute, literary account of her five years in the army sets a benchmark."— Publishers Weekly
"Though I knew it would be urgent, compelling, and excellent from the first page, Formation was a much more expansive book than I even could have suspected: a riveting, enraging memoir from an author of remarkable toughness and emotional range. This is an unflinching and honest account of war, of homecoming, and of what happens when a woman reports an assault and the institutions around her try to smother the truth."—Phil Klay, National Book Award-winning author of Redeployment
"Formation grabs us by the collar and never relents, much like Dostie herself, whose path to independence gets paved with blood and sacrifice. Her gripping memoir lays bare the pain of proving yourself in a man's world, but also the rich rewards. Most of us will probably never go to war, but Dostie's story speaks to a daily struggle many of us face: the battle to believe in ourselves."—Sarah Hepola, New York Times bestselling author of Blackout
"An essential telling of one woman's account of training and combat: staggeringly beautiful, gutsy, and harrowing. Dostie has written the rare memoir that is destined to be a classic. I couldn't put this book down and I never wanted it to end."—Christa Parravani, bestselling author of Her: A Memoir
"This is a fierce memoir of survival-a visceral and vital portrait of what it takes to thrive as a woman in a man's world. Time is long overdue for the world to hear Ryan Leigh Dostie's remarkable story of resilience in the face of the unspeakable."—Susannah Cahalan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire
"Vital, brutal and absolutely compelling...A significant standout."—Marilyn Dahl, Shelf Awareness
"Here is the war memoir re-invented. Dostie offers a beautiful, soulful, and astonishingly fresh take on the war in Iraq, and a deeply original book. Formation should be a must read at West Point, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and all points in between."—Jake Halpern, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Paper
"Engaging...This powerful memoir explores issues of trauma, human rights, and the resilience needed to stand up for ourselves when everyone is trying to keep us quiet."—Inc.
"[An] unquestionably inspiring story traversing the personal and public battlefields of sexual assault in the armed forces...Each of these narratives deserves to be heard.—Kirkus
"What makes Formation more than a story of victimization is partly Dostie the soldier, a gritty protagonist we can root for. It's also partly Dostie the writer."—Daily Nutmeg
SEPTEMBER 2019 - AudioFile
Ryan Dostie pulls no punches in narrating her raw, mesmerizing memoir. She entered the army right after high school because it seemed to be the road to freedom for a young woman raised in a strict Christian community. What she discovered in her military experience was alcohol, and what followed was a rape that no one believed happened because she had had too much to drink at the time. She keeps her emotions in check when she speaks of her service in Iraq and the rape, but the tension in her voice suggests her subsequent struggles with PTSD. Dostie provides a compelling account of experiences that are all too common among women in our nation’s military. E.E.S. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
