Publisher: Self-Published (K.L. Randis) Page Count: 321 Nonfiction Subjects: True Crime, Biography, Mystery, Psychological Dates Read: March 15 - 18, 2015 Before I get too far into this book I must warn you that this is a true story that is very dark and was a difficult subject to get through. TRIGGER WARNING: Child Abuse and Sexual Assault Summary: My hands trembled as I dialed the number for social services and slipped a piece of paper out of my pocket. I knew I would forget something, so I wrote down what I needed to say in a paragraph. An operator picked up and I smoothed the paper out in front of me. When I finished rattling off what I needed to say, she asked for my name and to explain how I knew what I knew. “I can’t tell you my name. But you have to believe me. Listen to my voice, I’m a child, and I’m terrified. You need to help these kids.” - Excerpt from Spilled Milk Based on a true story, Brooke Nolan is a battered child who makes an anonymous phone call about the escalating brutality in her home. When social services jeopardize her safety condemning her to keep her father’s secret, it’s a glass of spilled milk at the dinner table that forces her to speak about the cruelty she’s been hiding. In her pursuit for safety and justice Brooke battles a broken system that pushes to keep her father in the home. When jury members and a love interest congregate to inspire her to fight, she risks losing the support of family and comes to the realization that some people simply do not want to be saved. Review: My initial response when I first started reading this and was about 100 pages in: I think I have a found a dark rabbit hole that will be a difficult journey to go down. A part of me knows wants to turn back now and not read the rest of these dark and twisted events, but I want to know what happens to Brooke and her three siblings. I'm about a quarter of the way through this so far, but it's proving to be a tough read, both for the content and also for the editing of the book. Based on what I've read so far, I recommend the book, but be warned it is pretty grim and heart wrenching. This was an incredibly difficult book to get through, for a couple of reasons. For me the biggest issue was the subject content. Randis is very open about the sexual abuse she was subjected to, and the physical abuse her brothers and sister were victims of. She never goes into great detail about specifics of her abuse, but enough that you know it was absolutely horrible for her, and you constantly question how any other human being could be capable of this. I pushed quickly through the book even though it gave me nightmares, because I wanted to get through it as quickly as possible. The second, and lesser issue I had was the poor editing of this book. I can't be too hard on Randis though, because she self-published her book. She didn't have a high priced editor or publishing company on her side to clean up her manuscript, and I know that if I were to ever self-publish a book, no matter how many times I tried to edit it or had friends edit it for me, I'd still have a fair share of mistakes. If you read this, just be prepared that it's not perfect, but the story itself overshadows these errors. For the record, this is a very enjoyable book, in the sense of learning about Brooke's fight in the legal system and with her family. Reading about Brooke's abuse was very troubling. I recommend reading this book, if you are up to the subject matter. I give this a 5 out of 5.
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7/16/2018 12:13:29 am
How do you meet other gamblers if you're not in a casino setting? I have a friend who carries around a guitar pick in his pocket, when he has an opportunity to get rid of some loose change his guitar pick stands out among the coins he's shifting through and most often people who play guitar will say, "Hey, I Play Guitar Too." It's a great way for him to strike up an otherwise awkward conversation about music. Could the same work for someone who holds a few 10g Desert Sands Casino Poker Chips in their hand? Sure, why not?
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