Customer Reviews

Shattered Vessels

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I must say that this book has shattered my record for finishing and book in record time and in one sitting. Nancey has done a wonderful job with her most recent work. This is one of the best written books I have read in a long time. With creatively named chapters such as "You Better Stop Abusing My Sister" and "Aint Nobody Helping You, The Lord, Nobody" the story touches on some very touchy subjects and different types of abuse. Step into the lives of Bedford and Sandy, Wanita and Wiiliam , India and Grayson and Patience and Johnathan. Each couple throughout the book deals with their own issues, whether it be infidelity, mental abuse or physical abuse the pages seem to turn on their own after a while. You are swept up into the lives of these unforgettable characters, and not dissapointed with the final outcomes. Shattered Vessels is a excellent discussion book and I will be recommending it to others book clubs around.

Reviewed By Nakea Murray of AsThePageTurns Book Club

Nancey Flowers opens Shattered Vessels, the novel with Shattered Vessels, the poem. In it she exhibits how your body is a vessel filled with emotions, spirits, thoughts, hopes and dreams. She alludes to the fact that on the outside your vessel may appear whole but on the inside you know the truth. This poem serves as great prologue for the story within.

Shattered Vessels features four friends, their husbands and their plights as couples. Sandy and Bedford; Sandy's cousins-sisters India and Patience; their husbands Grayson and Jonathan; and Sandy's friend Wanita and her husband William. The story focuses on domestic violence and its implications on the victim, the abuser, family and friends.

Sandy's abuse is not physical; her husband is a philanderer, bedding numerous women he comes into contact with including his ex-wife who is his business partner. Grayson physically abuses India and Wanita's husband William mentally abuses her; he believes he is academically superior and how dare she form an opinion. Of the four, Patience is not in an abusive relationship, however she knows that her sister India is trying desperately to hide her abuse for all the wrong reasons. We read about the daily trials and tribulations of these women and how they overcome, if they ever do, their demons or the demons of their husbands. I only wished that more insight had been provided on the husbands and their backgrounds. There was some but not enough to form an opinion as to their behavior. But then again, maybe there could never be an answer to their abusive behavior whether mental or physical.

Shattered Vessels is a compelling, engaging, wonderfully written and neatly packaged story. Nancey Flowers is a great storyteller that forces you into the lives and minds of her characters. She concludes the novel with a message defending the stories within as true occurrences due to her interviews with abused women. Domestic violence, whether physical or mental, knows no economic boundaries (as portrayed within this story) and happens to whom we least expect.

Reviewed by Dawn R. Reeves, APOOO BookClub

What defines spousal abuse? Infidelity? Verbal Assault? Physical Battery? These issues are explored in Nancey Flowers newest novel "Shattered Vessels." Ms. Flowers enthralls the reader into the lives of India, Wanita, and Sandy, all apparently intelligent women whose lives are somehow strained by abusive relationships. The novel is more than a commentary on domestic violence; readers are drawn into some very disturbing situations and at times will find themselves uncomfortable, wondering, "What would I do?" Ms. Flowers does an excellent job tackling a very serious subject. "Shattered Vessels" will be long celebrated as a story of triumph over one of societies greatest flaws, Domestic Violence.

For some erroneous reason, many of us still believe that abuse only happens to "those kind of women" by "those kind of men" and couldn't happen in our circle. It is also generally believed that abuse must leave behind visible bruises and scars in order to be legitimate. In Shattered Vessels, abuse takes different forms and touches a variety of women who could be our friends, neighbors, sisters or selves...a vice principal, a magazine beauty editor and a former nurse. The abusers are your "good catch" surface-only upstanding citizens: an attorney, CEO, etc.

Ms. Flowers is not the first writer to take on this subject but she manages to put a fresh spin on in and she drags it so close to home that the stories haunt the reader long after the last page. It's painful, real, heart-wrenching and makes you so angry you want to spit fire. She skillfully handles a touchy subject in a touching way.

There are so many angles for discussion that this will make an excellent book club choice or just good reading period to discuss with your best friend. You won't be disappointed.

this book was good from the beginning to end. i read it about a year and half ago. i was looking for a sequel, but i could not put the book down. enjoy

I am responsible for the month book club. So I had to find a book that was exciting for our club and I found Shattered Vessels. I can say this was truly a great book. The members in my book club finish without complaints as well as a record time. We all have said we looking forward to reading more of Nancey Flowers books.

Thank you Ms. Flowers, job well done!

Wow, this book really blew me away at times. These women loved their men but often hated themselves. Grayson was so evil and Bedford had the perfect name since all he wanted to do was "bed" any woman in a skirt in spite of his loving and forgiving wife Sandy. I found the William character the most troubling of all. How he could talk to Wanita in that way really floored me. Men like that aren't unheard of and reading it in black and white this in what was supposed to be a "fictional tale" turned out to be an alarming wake up call courtesy of this author. What a job well done! The presence of Patience and Jonathan throughout the book only reinforced that healthy relationships can exist.

I could give this book 5* easily but the long periods lacking dialogue interrupted its flow.

Shattered Vessels,I have to say Nancey Flowers kept it real. It is very much ashame the levels of abuse women endure on a daily basis in the name of "love". This novel is so realistic, which contributed to it being such a good read.

the story of these women may not be sofar fetch to some women that has endeared this pain of the men they love and trusted with their lifes but every dog has their day.this was a good story about abuse that was so very real for so many women this author has penned this so well to let you feel the pain for these women and hoping they would see the evil ways of their men each charater had their own ways of dealing with their love for these men that i want to choke each and everyone. even thou this is fiction why do we as women let this happen. this was a good story and i did like it enough to read the seguel.this is a story about the lenght we go thru as women to hold on to the men we think we love for whatever reason.

I truly loved this book and I felt a closeness to the women characters. These women were put through so much but I loved the way they held it together for each other. I would like to find out what happened to each of them. This was a very good read and you won't be disappointed. Keep up the good work.