Caroline is a colleague of mine who kindly gave us each a copy of her book when she joined our team a year or two ago, and I finally sat down to read it.
In the book she shares her story of abuse, including some truly awful examples of specific incidents, but also, her testimony of how God brought her through it.
The way it’s written means that, while the content is really harrowing at times, it’s actually really easy to read; the chapters are short, each ending in a space for pause and reflection. In fact, the further you get through it, the more it feels uplifting as you see how there really is hope after abuse.
It really feels like it’s written for those who are suffering or have suffered abuse, but it’s helpful for anyone to read to give a better basis to support those we may know now or in the future who suffer through this.
I generally enjoy Matt Haig’s books, and saw they were making a film of this so thought I’d read the book before it came out. What I didn’t realise ’til I started reading it, was that it’s a vampire book, which isn’t really my cup of tea.
The Radleys seem from the outside to be an ordinary family – but actually, they’re vampires. The parents choose to live as abstainers – not consuming any blood, not human, nor vampire. The two teenage children don’t yet know that they’re vampires. Of course, the plot comes from them finding out who they are in rather dramatic circumstances and the fall out from that.
It still felt very Matt Haig to read, and the story itself was fine, easy to keep interested, it’s just not really my genre.
The trailer for the film is below:
