Okay. First thank you for creating this site and thank you for wanting to share yourself(and your journey) so that others won't believe themselves to be so alone anymore and won't feel that way as well. With this being said,though,you NEED to choose a different picture for the cover!! It's WAY too terrifying,horrifying,creepy,and just outright scary!!
So far as the caption goes it would be better if you did this: Are they truly capable of loving me, or not? A survivors' journey through the darkness to the light. This,also,needs to be put at the bottom.
If you really feel a deep(and profound) need to write the # of yr.s that it took you to get to where you are now than put it in the dedication. Let the dedication read something like this: I'm dedicating this book to the child I once was,the man I am now,and the 45yr.s it took of walking(and sometimes stumbling and falling)to reach the level of freedom,acceptance,and peace that I now have.
P.S.: Change the title to something like: The truth of toxic Parents
Change the photo to something like: a man smiling for all he's worth,with his face turned up towards the sun, and arms held wide out. Like he's finally embracing the sun(in a symbolic way).
Best of luck to you!

I guess I should have mentioned that also for 45 years I have been corrected in everything I have tried to do. I've never been good enough of able to meet my parents standards. Thanks for your input but the book is an expression of hurt. I am not a man smiling. When others were going to college I was shoveling pig shir out
of 100 degree barn thick with a cloud of flies so I learned to word things as I felt not politically correct. It's not a fairy tale it's about pain and suffering and what I used as my tools to survive. I'm not mad, just replying. Thank you.

I know it's NOT a fairy tale!!! I,also,know that(the majority of people)are not going to want to pick it up,let alone read it,if it has a cover that looks like a horror movie!
I don't know what your story is like BUT I do know what it's like to have toxic parents!! It's NEVER a fairy tale!!!
Also,the man smiling means that he's,in his healing journey,finally gotten to the point where he's learned to forgive,let go,and move forward with his healing and his life . **FYI: Forgiving isn't about them it's about you! They will NEVER be deserving and worthy of it BUT you are!So do it for your sake-NOT THEIRS!!!**
I know what I'm talking about because I've spent yr.s on my own healing journey and I'm still traveling it!!

OK...forgot to mention that the toxic are also my abusers ,, ran fr on then for 30 years and a accident put me back with them and just like no time had elasped the abuse started again. I am disabled because of their abuse. Social services does nothing because this is reverse from the cases they normally get elderly abuse I'm my situation means the elderly abusing. Sorry thay I expected you to know ...the picture is actually me. .

mine are so toxic i couldn't even get independant of them easily they played the game like that and now are kicking my ass. i swear i'm not making excuses and i was the top performer in high school and uni (they forced me into a program i didnt like but i performed for a while anyway before dropping out) so how could i end up like this if my parents weren't very toxic