VICTIM

A rape survivor presents a story of violence and recovery.

In this book, artist and author Moe tells of how, in 1994, she was abducted and raped for 24 hours by a man who’d raped many other women in the past. This work relates her harrowing experience, but it’s much more complex than a typical true-crime memoir. Moe is unflinching in her descriptions of her ordeal and weaves memories into the narrative in flashes, recalling details that have resurfaced through the years: “​​Why do we forget some parts of our lives and remember others so clearly?” she asks as she recalls that her abductor had “a pair of underwear from every woman he had raped.” Throughout her compelling account, Moe includes cited statistics about sex crimes (“it is estimated that between 64% and 96% of sexual assaults are not even reported”), feminist theory (“Yes, like it or not, anti-feminist backlashers, patriarchy is a rape culture”), and her own difficult family history (“no one in my family was there for me. Apparently, they couldn’t handle it”). The author’s comments on victim-shaming and traumatic feelings of guilt make for some of the most powerful passages: “This is…the core of my shame. The beginning of the violence I have worked the rest of my life to not inflict on myself. The violence of blame. The violence of self-blame.” Her honesty about the trauma she’s suffered and her willingness to tell her story are inspiring, and she relates it all with a strong combination of anger and pride: “Some people have told me that they worry about me because I feel too much,” she writes. “Isn’t the not-enough more worrisome?”

A bold and well-constructed work that takes on difficult topics in a compelling way.