nonfiction / graphic memoir (CW/TW: childhood sexual abuse, depression, suicidal thoughts, alcoholism, abusive relationships)

A victim of childhood sexual abuse tells her story, finally getting to openly defy the power that her serial abuser had held over her for much of her teen and adult life. The story also reveals a complete and bald-faced failure of the legal system (in Canada, in this case) not to mention lack of mental health support and a complete lack of concern by law enforcement (and one criminally negligent lawyer) in preventing these crimes from happening. ( )

When she was 14- and 15-years-old, Emily Carrington was groomed, sexually abused, and raped by her 40-year-old neighbor, Richard. She recounts that horrible experience in the 1980s and her decade-long quest for justice that began 27 years later. While waiting on the legal system, she took justice into her own hands, drawing her pain, her loss, and her journey to recovery. Engrossing, enraging, and moving.

Reminded me of Chanel Miller's Know My Name and the power that comes from a survivor telling her story and making her voice heard. ( )