Mimi Thebo (2004) Hit the Road, Jack. London, Harper Collins 978-0-00-714278-1

 

A young adult fiction book about a teenage boy feeling a misfit at a school and beginning to clash with his mother, wondering if finding his father will help him find himself.

[Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence]

[Spoiler alert]

Jack is a young teenage boy who finds letters from his father to his mother. He has only hazy memories of his father but has heard that he is now living on the streets. He blames his mother for rejecting his father and sets out to find him.

Breaking all the rules he sneaks out after bedtime and meets a cast of interesting characters who are drawn into his search, risking their own safety in doing so.

In finding his drug addicted and homeless father, he recovers memories of the physical abuse his father subjected his mother to – and as a small child he witnessed 

His search reaches a dramatic and dangerous end but cements his friendship with the people who he has met and enables him to find “his tribe”.

This is really heart-warming tale and deals with the recovered memories of the abuse in a way that would be appropriate for a young teenager to read without diminishing the horrific nature of the abuse.

Nancy Werlin (2006) The Rules of Survival. New York, Speak. 978-0-14-241071-4

 

The narrator is the eldest of three children who live with their neglectful and abusive mother. The story follows her increasingly erratic behaviour as she pursues a man who has rejected her until a tragedy occurs.

[Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence]

[Spoiler alert]

This is an interesting book as it is the first one which portrays an abusive female in a heterosexual relationship. It is interesting to see portrayed how a character – the woman in this case – who is less physically strong, uses violence through the manipulation of other people as well as being mentally and emotionally abusive.

The novel is primarily the story of the three children and how they develop techniques to survive their mother’s neglect and abuse. The eldest child, the narrator, involves a man he meets at the counter of a store. He doesn’t realise it at the time but he is connecting with an adult who has survived childhood abuse. Unwittingly he brings the man into their family and into an intimate relationship with the mother. It is when he experiences her manipulation that he ends the relationship, sparking an escalating pattern of violence, usually at the hands of her new lovers, and abuse towards him. It escalates to a tragic conclusion and he is then drawn in to gather together a group of people to support the children.

This is a young adult novel, with the main character, Matthew Walsh, writing a letter to his youngest sibling, Emmy, who would have been too young to remember the details.

 

Awards:

• Finalist National Book Award for Young People’s Literature 2006
• Finalist Los Angeles Times Book Prize 2006
• American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults 2007

Angie Cruz (2019) Dominicana. London, John Murray. 978-1-529-30487-9

 

    Again, the main theme of this book is not domestic abuse, but it occurs as part of the marriage between the main character and the man twice her age she is persuaded to marry at 15 to improve the chances of a better life for all the family.
 
[Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence]
[Spoiler alert].
 
Ana comes from a poor family in what is now the Dominican Republic. The best chance for her family to have a better life comes from emigrating and moving to America. Ana attracts the eye of a Dominican who has already moved to NYC and marriage brings with it the prospect of the whole family making that move. Ana’s husband is violent towards her when he feels his authority over her is undermined or their precarious position is threatened by her actions. When, during political upheaval in Dominica, her husband returns home, Ana is left free to fall in love, make friends, and develop some financial independence. When her husband returns, she has to choose between duty and family, freedom and love.
 
The story is told to the backdrop of political events in Dominica and American intervention in those events and the murder of Malcolm X. It beautifully details the experience of immigrants in 1960’s New York and is based on the life of the author’s mother.
 
Awards:
·        Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020

Loretta Stimson (2009) Little Green. Portland, Hawthorne Books. 978-0-9790188-1-7

 

Loretta Stimson’s novel is a coming of age story about an orphaned 16-year old who runs away from her step-family and her experiences as a vulnerable-to-exploitation young woman.

[Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence]
[Spoiler alert].

Set in 1970’s West Coast USA, the novel follows the story of Janie Marek who leaves home, family and school, following the death of both her parents and her alienation from what remains. She takes brave risks, being exploited, raped and abused along the way, while having an underlying resilience. She finds what she takes to be love with a man ten years her senior who becomes increasingly addicted to drugs and alcohol and, in the process, increasingly violent and abusive towards her. Janie believes that she loves Paul and that the glimpses she has had of a good relationship with him at the beginning can be the whole of the relationship if only she can change him.

While again, focussing on the violent aspects of domestic abuse, with extreme violence being the trigger to Janie leaving the relationship, it does portray well several aspects of domestic abuse, such as policing of friends and other relationships, dictating what is acceptable to wear, some instances of gaslighting over where he has left the car keys) and Janie’s torturous (for both herself and the readers) beliefs that she can make him a better person and the excuses she tells herself for the abusive outbursts. It also showcases well her reluctance to leave him while she loves him.

It is a compelling read with a “it will be a happy-ever-after ending” coupled with fairy-tale like relationships of some of the other characters. Those addicted to drugs are portrayed in a stereotypical fashion as are the gender roles of all the characters.