Truth Told Well and Powerfully

I am smart. I am lovely. I am creative. I am caring. I am accomplished. I am competent. I am optimistic and tolerant. I am loyal.

I am emotionally abused. I am in denial about the damage my soul suffers from my beloved abusers. I am illogically unwilling to abandon the ones who slay another small piece of me daily.

I am deeply confused over how such an emotionally barren state results from many decades of loving, giving and supporting others. I am burdened with ancient childhood lessons about making do, putting one's best face forward, stoically enduring unpleasantness, and hiding my desperate need for help.

I am in a prison of my own making and only an external crisis can drive me to save myself before nothing is left to salvage.

Brettell's moving and honest memoir houses all these dissonant, painful truths while moving towards an improbable, even miraculous, happy ending. That her ultimately fortunate outcome was enabled only accidentally through the most horrendous experience imaginable represents yet another lesson in the difference between existing and living.

The writing is plain but good, though a bit more proofreading would have helped. It's still a good book. I especially thank the author for sharing it with so many readers who need a timely eye-opener like this.