Customer Reviews

The Fourteenth Year

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book touched my heart and soul.
I believe it takes a great deal of courage to reveal such details of a person's life in order to help others.
Kelly has put her story out there to let people in similiar situations know that they are not alone and there is hope.
She proves that dreams and personal achievements do not have to be lost at the hands of an abuser.
A very personal and candid look into a part of an abused girl's life and the coping mechanisms used to get through.
I highly recommend this book.

This book is a raw account of a young girls fight to survive years of repeated abuse. Throughout the book the writer sheds a ray of hope that one day she will have a normal, loving family of her own. The thought of a family gives her the strength to live. This book is very easy to read. Each chapter left me amazed of how the writer was able to go on. It is a story of how a young girl was able to triumph over unbeatable odds. I highly recommend this book!

[...] 2007 review by NIcole Merritt

Author Kelly Watt gives a personal account of her life with a sexually abusive father and a detached mother that makes every nerve in your body stand up. Her life story is every young girl's nightmare. The title gives away the time frame of the abuse but it says nothing of the strength and will of this young girl. Running away was an option that always sent her mother and father hot on her trail and brought her back to her tortured life in a home that offered no security. The one time she was able to stay away and have her father locked up for his crimes, only to experience neglect at the hands of foster families, she returned of her own free will to the abusive comfort of home.
She then stayed with her family, moving from place to place while her father panhandled for a living and her mother remained aware and void of any compassion for her own daughter and her well-being. It was a nightmare childhood that Kelly learned to brave simply because she felt she had nowhere else to go. And brave it, she did. Finally, at the age of fourteen she left never to return.

Kelly is now married with children of her own. She credits her survival and wisdom to having endured in such a twisted world. Had she left, she would not have grown to be the woman she is today. I recommend this book as a therapeutic journey for anyone who may have suffered under the hands of an abusive parent. It is also a great educating tool for those in the foster care field.

Nicole Merritt
[...]

"The Fourteenth Year" is an inspiring book that will touch your heart. As you read the book, you have to wonder how this child managed to deal with everything that happened to her and grow up to lead a normal life with her husband and children. I admire Kelly's strength and brutal honesty as it must have been difficult to re-live her childhood in order to write this book, let alone have it published and reviewed by a bunch of strangers. When I read the book, I was reading for "enjoyment", not to analyze the feasibility of what items were inconsistent within her story. I admire her for her determination to survive and for the work she is currently doing on behalf of children who are abused.

My one complaint about this book is that it left me feeling like I wanted more. While I am sure Kelly poured out her heart and soul, I felt like there was something disjointed or disconnected between myself and the individuals I was reading about. I almost felt like the book was superficial and Kelly couldn't dig deep enough within herself other than to simply scratch the surface of her life story. Perhaps, this is simply due to the trauma she endured or maybe, she simply chose to tell us what she wanted us to know. Either way, I hope to see a continuation of her memoir in the future.

this book truly cuts deep to the guts.... there are is no sugar coating of the facts as a young girl survives things that no human nor animal should ever have to bear. the glimmer of hope does shine through at the end, that she does survive (physically ) intact. I am wishful that young victims of this kind of abuse could read her writing and realize that they too could survive (possibly finding a way to cope without choosing drugs, alcohol and promiscuity), i also feel strongly that this book should be read by all involved in law enforcement, teachers and all in children's services of any kind. it is almost a handbook of the type of behaviors that should call an alert to abuse.

i am hoping that kelly will publish a "part 2".

This was a sad story but there were way too many inconsistencies throughout. For example; she talks about being promiscuous after losing her virginity to a boyfriend, and later she talks about losing her virginity to her father.

After she runs away and the father is arrested for abuse, she talks about her friends who also accused him of abusing them. But, when she lies and says it never happened, her father is allowed to walk out. What happened to the charges against him for molesting her friends? This is never mentioned again. I'm sure the trauma affects the memories but an editor should have been able to clean some of this up.