Book Review: Beyond The Mountains: An Immigrant's Inspiring Journey of Healing and Learning to Dance with the Universe by Deja Vu Prem-Memoir

Hello, dear Readers,

Below is my book review of Beyond The Mountains: An Immigrant's Inspiring Journey of Healing and Learning to Dance with the Universe by Deja Vu Prem.

Title: Beyond The Mountains: An Immigrant's Inspiring Journey of Healing and Learning to Dance with the Universe. 

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Genre: Memoir

Author: Deja Vu Prem.

Publisher: Counterpoint
Publication Date: November 19, 2024

Language: English

Hardcover: 208 Pages

Meet the Author: Deja Vu Prem

Buy Me: Amazon

Book Description

The powerful story of how an immigrant from the Philippines overcame childhood trauma and an emotionally abusive marriage to find her voice and thrive.

As a child in a small barrio in the Philippines, Deja Vu Prem faced neglect and physical abuse. At age seventeen, desperate to escape her situation and claim a better life for herself beyond the mountains of her town, she became a mail-order bride and moved to San Francisco. But the challenges of her childhood didn’t go away—they merely evolved into the form of her emotionally abusive husband.

Cut off from her family and any kind of emotional or financial support, Prem was a prisoner in her own home, unable even to use the phone or check the mail. But she wasn’t helpless. Relying on her deep faith and the fire within that had always pushed her to achieve, Prem made the brave decision to escape her situation to provide a better life for herself and her two young children.

Recounting Prem’s harrowing yet hopeful journey, Beyond the Mountains is a stirring and moving portrait of one immigrant’s refusal to be defined as a victim and a testament to finding the strength to forgive in order to reclaim the power that lives within us all.

My Thoughts

I was so amazed by Deja Vu's story. What a complex and raw journey.

TW: This book has sexual abuse, domestic violence, abuse, trauma, and LGBTQ content.

I was most impressed by her strong desire to go beyond the borders of her country, no matter what. Her desire was so strong that there was almost no other option but to do what needed to be done to achieve it. 

To come to another country that you had never been to, with a person you barely knew, with the hope that everything would work out. I don't know of many people who are that brave. Even though her marriage was not the ideal, loving one Deja Vu hoped for, I loved how she always protected her children from her father and all the bad in the world as much as she could. Also admire her for wanting to be her true self no matter what; once she decides, her sexual preferences shouldn't be hidden from her family, daughters, or the rest of the people in her life. 

Overall, it is a raw, honest, inspirational story.

Thank you, Counterpoint and NetGalley, for the free advanced listeners copy, in exchange for an honest review. 

Wendy