Customer Reviews

Dangerous Families: Queer Writing on Surviving

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4 star:		(1)
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I didn't know what to expect from this book, but what I found was an astounding variety of amazing, refreshing, saddening, and inspiring stories by people who've really lived life and survived trauma to become so much more. The writing is raw, ambitious, wrenching and captivating. There are so many layers to each story, instead of the predictable survivor narratives that we've become accustomed to. I'm so glad I discovered this surprising gem.

I am a contributor to this volume. My piece excepted, this collection includes a wide variety of examples of abuse (physical, sexual, psychological). The writers might identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender but their stories are universal. Rather than being depressing, this book is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. I recommend it.

Child abuse and neglect usually have lifelong impact on the children, who survive. Some are getting help along the way to find a place to put the pain they have experienced in their childhood, while others continue to live with the pain and continue to suffer their whole life.
This book is unusual, because 29 "queer persons" have decided to tell their stories and how they have survived growing up queer in families, where they have experienced abuse.
This book can be useful for both therapists working with the population of victims of child abuse, but also for adults who have experienced abuse themselves.

Profesor Joav Merrick, MD
Director, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and Medical director(...)

I've never before read a book that contains such a wide variety of experiences, writing styles and outlooks. This anthology does not shy from confronting the horrors of abusive families, as is evident from the first line in the book: "healing is my own anticolonial war." But it's also incredibly inspiring for the ways that all of these children have survived to tell such wrenching stories in complex, jarring ways. As a parent, it was difficult to get through many of the essays, but always I found an incredible burst of hope when I least expected it. As a survivor of childhood abuse, I also could see my story being told in so many different ways. Unlike most books that address childhood abuse, every story in this anthology is stylistically challenging, innovative, and carefully crafted. I highly recommend it.