Publisher's Synopsis
Amanda is thrust into the past by a summons to a small town Minnesota courthouse to testify against her stepfather. Her innocence was stolen, and she lost her intimate dignity; Amanda got dealt a different hand in life, but for the most part, she didn't think her childhood was different until one point. Her adult life has been about running away from her childhood, but now she must confront the horrors of her past: the broken soul, shame, guilt, and condemnation. Emotionally charged memories of childhood abuse from her sadistic stepfather (rage personified) and the neglect of an emotionally absent mother are relived. Raised in diametrically opposing worlds of a South Dakota Indian reservation and the borough of Brooklyn, New York, Amanda is introduced to people and events that change her and impact her life forever. Somehow, she must now reconcile with all of it, so she doesn't remain empty and dead inside. From the early trauma that affects the brain to the lingering memories the rest of her life, which kill a person inside: a soul ripped apart more after every rape until numb. WARNING: This horrifying survivor's narrative is based upon a real account of surviving child abuse, and as such, contains passages that some readers may find graphic and disturbing.
