Review of Every 9 Minutes
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- Kansas City Teacher
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Review of Every 9 Minutes
In Every 9 Minutes: A Memoir, author Christina Vitagliano tells her story. Christina’s early life is marked with frequent moving, poverty, and sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather. The secret is hers to bear, and she navigates adolescence and young adulthood with this heavy burden. Will she find the courage to confront her stepfather? Will her mother protect her? She painfully recounts this abuse and how it has affected her outlook, her choices, and her psyche.
This book highlights the devastating and lingering effects of sexual abuse from the perspective of its young victim. The point of view changes as Christina matures, and her thoughts and introspect give readers a front-row seat to the venomous consequences of abuse that seem to penetrate many aspects of her life; resentment festers as she interacts with her mother and siblings and romantic relationships are short-lived.
The best part of this book is the author’s use of voice and how it changes throughout the narrative. The first few chapters have a childish and literal tone, which later becomes more insightful and sophisticated as she matures. As a child, she wonders, “Why didn’t Mommy wake up?” As a young adult, she ponders, “Why did God make people like that?” As Christina tries to make sense of what has happened to her, readers can sense the confusion and self-blame. As she gets older, her words and thoughts become more deliberate and thoughtful as she contemplates her situation. This clever technique highlights the vulnerability of children; they innately want to please people and lack the vocabulary to express themselves. This effectively explains why many children do not report their abuse to caring adults around them.
There were some instances of inconsistent spacing throughout the book on the Kindle version, and the editing is the only part of the book I disliked. For example, there were at least ten times that there appeared to be an extra indent. This did not, however, affect my reading too much, as the content was captivating, but it did happen rather frequently. Because of this issue only, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.
I recommend this book to readers looking for an inspirational story about dealing with abuse or those who enjoy memoirs. There are explicit descriptions of sexual abuse of children and some moderate profanity throughout the book, so people who are sensitive to this should not read the book. For all others, particularly those in daily contact with youth, this book provides a first-person narration of growing up in the perils of abuse and the unfortunate and dire consequences this abuse has on the lives of our children.
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Every 9 Minutes
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Thank you! In some of the psychological research I have been doing, it appears that abuse of children of this nature is as powerful as a genetic predisposition to mental illness (depression, etc...). So sad!El_limitless wrote: ↑18 Jun 2021, 10:07 The trauma of sexual abuse is such a terrible thing to put anybody through, more so a child who is yet even to discover herself. It thrives in silence. I hope Christina finds the strength to speak up. I'm sorry she had to go through all that—great review, by the way.
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