Warning: Reading "Broken Pieces" will not prepare you for "Broken Places", but let me be clear: "Broken Pieces" is an amazing work of art, and "Broken Places" is even better. If you care for someone who has been sexually abused, you need to read this book. If you are someone who has experienced sexual abuse, you should read this book. Just know that it will be extremely painful but also wrap you in a warm, loving hug.

Where "Broken Pieces" was sometimes shy and esoteric with some of the more painful topics, Rachel Thompson is not so protective with "Broken Places", especially with herself. This book should've taken me less than two hours to read, but it took me two days. I had to stop and re-read passages and even entire pieces. I had to take breaks because the pages were filled with so much power.

Our details are so very different, but our emotional truth is exactly the same. She told that truth so exquisitely. It terrified me to read that truth and comforted me to share it with someone. I wanted Rachel to shut up and to scream even louder. I found myself hating her and loving her and feeling all these things all at once. "Broken Places" tore me apart and put me back together.

Like Rachel Thompson, I refuse to hide from triggers. They are all around me anyway, and to deny them would be to deny myself and my right not to be ashamed for things that are not my fault. Rachel Thompson refuses to live in that shame, and she's helping me to do the same.