About book Stolen Innocence: Triumphing Over A Childhood Broken By Abuse: A Memoir (2005)
I'm hesitant to say anything "bad" about this book even though I know that's part of a review sometimes. The author not only went through this abuse but was obviously young at the time of the book writing. I'm going to be honest however.I thought it was just okay at best. There are many, many books and genres that I know nothing about. This isn't one of them. This is one of the few genres I do happen to know about and I've read many, many books on the subject. This fell flat. It seemed like they weren't real diary entries which bothered me to no end. It was as if Merryn took her diary from that time, went through it, picked and chose what she wanted, and then altered it to her liking. That's fine....but it's not diary entries.Now, I wasn't there with her when she wrote this- remember these are only my thoughts and mine alone. I could be way far off the mark here but this is how it seems to me. Another reviewer mentioned the typos and mistakes all over. There were many and the author commented back that she left them in as they were in her diary. That's hard to believe. I just have a hard time believing this young woman would make more mistakes at 17 than at 13. Many more. I've read books with stupid mistakes and I've read books with real diary entries and this looks like the former to me. I thought once I started it that it would be too religious for me but it wasn't. Her mother does a chapter at the end and her mother is obviously highly religious but as it was only a chapter it didn't take away from the book for me. If it had been longer it certainly would have. Erin doesn't seem like the preachy type while her mother does. The letters to and from Brian- what can you say about that? It's strange at best but it seems to have helped her come to terms with the abuse so I'm glad she was smart enough to write them. I don't know- there were a decent number of parts that seemed off. The later entries seemed way more immature sometimes than the beginning entries. There were no actual dates and that bothered me too. If these were actual diary entried where were the dates? Why just put the month and the year? It seems small but as anyone who has read diaries before know, that's a part of it. You have to wonder if there was a specific reason for keeping the actual dates out? All in all I wouldn't recommend, there are "better" books out there for this subject. I can recommend a dozen off the top of my head right now. I do admire Merryn, not only did she make it through this abuse but she wrote a book about it- that takes a certain amount of courage to do that. I almost forgot- there were a few short parts that didn't even seem like they came from Erin at all. Parts that seemed to be taken directly from her mother that were supposedly her diary entries. For example, her mother kept using the word 'restore' when talking about Brian getting help. Some of Erin's "entries" used the same word in the same fashion. She could have used the word after hearing it from her mother but it didn't seem that way to me. It's not the way a kid would say that I don't think, especially not in their private diary. I wanted to like this a lot more. :(
Stolen Innocence is excerpts of a diary from a girl who was molested by her cousin. While the acts are committed in the first 50 pages, her agony rages on throughout her adolescence. The book's story was its strength. It is unfathomable that the author, Merryn, is continually subjected to her tormentor through consistent family gatherings, the extended family favoring her cousin over her by proclaiming his innocence and taking a heightened interest in his scholastics and athletics. Erin is a brilliant gal who gives to her community and writes a book out of high school. That being said, there are noticeable flaws in it, including poor editing (the text is spell checked, but laden with typos). Erin quotes herself in a series of famous quotes. Also, her series of correspondence to her cousin is long in the tooth and could have been edited, provided that most of it was seemingly ignored by her perpetrator. Seeing Erin replace seething anger with forgiveness was probably the best treat of this memoir, though the religious overtones may be a little grating for some.
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I've read all of Erin's books, and each one is good. She's telling her story. It's not easy to read, but each book is well done. It's not easy for her or anyone to share a story like this, but her triumph has turned into a passion, and she is determined to do her part to eradicate child sexual abuse. She is an advocate that lived it, and will do whatever she possibly can to help even one child, but helping one will never be enough. Erin is tough as nails and will keep going like the energizer bunny to save as many as she can. With Erin, the key word is prevention. So admire this woman.
—Georgie
The reson i picked this book is because when i read a child called it that book was so sad and when i finish that book at the end of the book it said stolen innocence a real life book so then i began to read the back of it and became interested and began to read it so when I was reading it it became to be emotional and how he began to tough her and tryed to rape her so I want to said for the girl who out their getting rape dont be sraced to tell anyone what is happen in your life ang god bless ya. :)
—Gabriel Lopez
Read 2007This courageous young author and child abuse survivor spoke at our local college. I was so moved by her story and her "breaking the cycle" I had to run out and grab the book right away.Child abuse happens every day, and more often than we ever think. It's not always the families who look like they have problems...sometimes it's the "clean" ones.This memoir offers a glimpse into the true life of the abused and what you can do to help.I wasn't disappointed with this read, and neither will you.(reviewed 09/22/08)
—Krista, Ambassador of Shimmy
