Kelly's Book Log: Nobody's Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre

I think everyone should read this book. I think it should be mandatory reading for every parent and every + 18 teenage girl. It broke my heart to read it, kept me up into the night and I couldn’t put it down. Virginia or Jenna’s Sisyphean struggle to get justice and be heard around her massive exploitation by arrogant powerful men, reminded me of my own life’s journey, and the journey of so many women of my generation. This is the story of how a poor, horrifically abused and lovely young girl was recruited, groomed, exploited and eventually farmed out as a sex slave by Jeffrey Epstein and his cast of powerful miscreants, who traded vulnerable young girls like playing cards, regardless of the lifelong consequences to their esteem, or physical and mental health. Giuffre reports that Epstein had thousands of photographs of his cruel conquests. With a few well spun lies, one psychopath damaged a whole generation of teenage girls. As someone who spent 30 years in therapy overcoming my own exploitation, it makes me sick to think of the healing they have ahead of them. Apparently, Virginia was often suicidal. I don’t blame her. The pressure must have been surreal. I gave up activism when I found myself teetering on the edge and my husband asked me to step back. I can see how she might have succumbed. At the same time there is a paragraph in her book on page 318, where she addresses the reader directly to say that she is not suicidal and if anything happens to her people should be suspicious.

I shivered when I read this. Giuffre also wrote…

I mean seriously where are those videotapes the FBI confiscated from Epstein’s houses? And why haven’t they led to the prosecuting of any more abusers?

I imagine that the amount of people implicated would, once revealed, upset the first world order, which tells you how corrupt it is. And how skillfully Epstein manipulated others. I wish Virginia were alive to see the tsunami when it comes.

This book, because of its nature, has received a lot of attention, but many other books on abuse barely get read. For decades such books were shunned by mainstream publishing and termed “misery memoirs.” In revolt, I often buy such titles, even when I don’t have time to read them, just to support the author. To applaud them for their courage and the sheer doggedness it takes to be heard. In the season of light, I encourage you to do the same. Support your fellow wordsmiths and sufferers. Below is a list of some of my favorites/and or those on my TBR pile:

Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

by Judith Lewis Hermann

The Burning Light of Two Stars: A Mother-Daughter Story by Laura Davis

The Colour Purple by Alice Walker

Broken by Shy Keenan, U.K.

Consent by Vanessa Springora, France