An eloquent and unsettling story of recovery that features solid advice and encouragement for other trauma victims.
Brooks debuts with a memoir of her struggle to recover from a traumatic assault.
On June 28, 2008, the 22-year-old author was living in Alexandria, Virginia, with her then-boyfriend and working at a prestigious accounting firm in Washington, D.C. That night, her boyfriend was out with friends, so she contacted a cousin who lived in Washington. After a night out, Brooks planned to spend the night at her cousin’s apartment until her boyfriend called and asked her to come home. Her cousin called a cab, and Brooks waited at the curb until a dark SUV pulled up; thinking it was her ride, she got in. Soon afterward, on the side of a deserted highway, the driver raped her, and he later dropped her off near her home. Brooks ran down her block screaming before her boyfriend and his friend met up with her. The police arrived and sent her to the local precinct, where she underwent hours of hostile questioning by detectives who dismissed her with an assurance that “this will all blow over and be fine. Best of luck.” On her own initiative, she went to the hospital to have a rape-kit examination performed, but the kit wasn’t processed for 18 months. In engaging, emotional prose that’s peppered with well-placed expletives, Brooks tells the infuriating story of her four-year quest to obtain some justice from the legal system and of her difficult journey to find peace within herself: “My life felt like scattered beads all over the floor from a broken clasp on a necklace,” she writes early on. With unvarnished honesty, she details her attempts to get her life back together; along the way, she struggled with alcohol abuse that led to blackouts and rages. She effectively tells of how broken she felt but also reveals her fierce determination to find normalcy and how her loved ones provided her with unflagging support.
An eloquent and unsettling story of recovery that features solid advice and encouragement for other trauma victims.Pub Date: Nov. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63393-966-0
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Koehler Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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