SAVING GRACE

A girl and her mother face the consequences allowing a sexual abuser back into their lives in Brooks’ novel.

Preteen Grace is faced with a horrible situation: Her divorced mother, Lynn, has forgiven her boyfriend Ron for his past abuse of Grace and asks her to forgive him, too. Lynn had called the police when Grace, then aged 9, told her that Ron “touched me...on my private area,” but the single mother is now sympathetic to Ron’s pleading letters from jail. When Lynn allows Ron back into her home upon his release, Grace’s father is infuriated, but his volatile nature complicates custody discussions, and he soon moves away. Ron doesn’t make overt advances on Grace for years, but his son, Ryan, now abuses her instead. Grace struggles through school and relationships, ashamed to share what’s going on in her home. When Ron finally reveals his continuing inappropriate attraction to Grace, Lynn dismisses it. Grace finds some happiness with a former high school classmate, Jake, and acts out sexually with others. By her college graduation, Grace has gained the strength to make tough life decisions and issue some ultimatums, prompting Lynn to do likewise. The insightful and often suspenseful narrative is particularly powerful when capturing a victim’s innermost thoughts: “It almost seemed as if, to him, she didn’t exist as he lay on top of her,” Grace muses about her abuse by Ryan. Brooks also offers a striking portrait of how Lynn becomes an enabler, influenced by a suppressed sexual incident from her own childhood. While the setting and era of the narrative are a bit hazy (the home is in New England; young Grace likes the Spice Girls), this novel offers readers a timeless and compelling therapeutic journey through trauma, recovery, and growth.

A gripping depiction of the damage caused by abuse and enablement.