I have the pleasure to read both Broken Pieces and Broken Places. Rachel's poetry is raw and powerful. While it is hard to discuss or read around the topic of sexual abuse, there is something profoundly consoling about this book. I appreciate the introduction surrounded the mind, body, soul, and dealing with feelings of shame and denial. Rachel's poems not only manage a difficult subject; they also make something new of it. For example: "Survivors create survival mechanisms. Mine is pushing through. I push everything to the side, out of my line of vision, out of my mind and I focus relentlessly on my goal." The grandeur of these lines awakes the fighter within sexual abuse survivors. However alone or alienated we feel about our own abuses, our lives can be changed. Rachel has certainly changed mine.