4 out of 4 stars
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This Does Not Leave This House is the real-life story of Julie Coons. It chronicles portions of her life that are not limited to the physical, verbal and mental abuse endured. While I was quite sympathetic to a lot of her issues, they quickly turned into something else when I read the details.
I am very happy that she was able to come out and write a tell-all about her experiences and in such a way. I appreciate the courage it must have taken to do something like this. While I applaud her on one hand for being able to survive what she did, I am sorry to say that on the other hand, I am very disgruntled with many of the things that happened.
At some point in your life, you have to realize that enough is enough. I was very upset at many points with the author because I felt that a lot of the things that happened to her, was as a direct result of something she failed to do or not do. I don't believe in blaming the victim of any situation, however, I believe if you continuously place yourself in a situation where harm will reach you, you begin to lose the victim status. For example, you got burned by fire and you know it was painful, yet you keep going back. And in your accounts, you go back not because you were forced to, but because you felt obligated to go near the fire, or felt sorry that the fire was all alone.
I hope that everyone who reads this book will take away something positive, and will learn to 'break the cycle'. I am happy that despite the many trying times she had, she was able to come through it. Not many persons would have been able to handle it as gracefully.
I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars because I think this book was well written, however, I could not get over the fact that there was much repetition. While I didn't particularly care for it, it added a certain 'je ne sais pas' to the book and did not detract from the stories being told.
I would definitely recommend this book to persons who are currently, or have previously been abused (in any form). I would also recommend this book to parents and young women because there is much to learn. It is also bookclub worthy because of the quality of discussions that can be had after reading this book.
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This Does Not Leave This House
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