Michele Sharpe

Impacts of rape conception and adoption

Revisado: 02-10-25

Do you remember how difficult it can be to talk about a subject when there’s no language or terminology for your own experience? Or when you’ve not yet found the language? Several years ago, Daisy (she uses this pseudonym to protect the identity of her mother) began posting on Twitter under the username rapeconception, offering necessary terminology for the experience of being conceived by rape.

The Second Victim begins with Daisy’s early memories of being a Black girl adopted by a White family and living in a White community in England. At a very young age, Daisy struggles with a sense of disjointedness, the paradox of being singled out and also invisible. When she begins asking questions about her birth parents, she senses another complication, one that’s under the surface of her visible differences from the White people surrounding her, but she doesn’t quite have the language for it yet.

Daisy narrates her own story in her intelligent and expressive voice. She’s joined by people who have been close to her during her search for justice, who add their voices and observations. As someone unfamiliar with podcasts, the listening experience took me a bit by surprise; the added sound effects made the experience more like a film than an audio book by encouraging my brain to visualize conversations and events. Daisy’s story is dramatic in its scope as it tracks her journey through closed doors and roadblocks to find her truth and to achieve some measure of justice and support for people who were born from rape.

Like rape itself, rape conception has long been stigmatized, underreported, and kept a secret. Unveiling the secret brings it into the light of examination, which can benefit everyone. Thank you, Daisy.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Needs better research

Revisado: 08-04-19

The story is, as usual, intriguing, but it’s marred by a poor understanding of drugs, and by Mr Bathurst’s failure to distinguish voices. Gamache and Beauvoir, for example, are indistinguishable.

Describing people high on opiates as having “dilated pupils” is an error that must be replicating itself, as I see it everywhere. The opposite is true: opiates cause pupils to constrict. Some drugs do make pupils dilate, like LSD and meth. Other errors, an opioid addict staving off withdrawal by taking LSD, show a lack of knowledge on the part of both the author and editor. If you want to write about the opioid epidemic, or any other epidemic, do the research.
I also found the repetition of the phrase “junkies, whores, and trannies” offensive. If one character were saying that, I could easily accept it as diction revealing a flaw in that character. But it’s the narrator who uses the phrase, and on multiple occasions.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

No sugarcoating, no bitterness, just brilliance

Revisado: 06-26-18

My habit is to listen to books while driving, and I was always glad to be back in my car because this memoir was so beautifully written and so riveting. . Toward the end of the memoir, though, I had to listen in the house and while walking since my need to know how things turned out for Mary and her sisters was so strong. I felt as if I were right with her in her longing to meet the sisters who'd been adopted by strangers.

Early parts of the memoir describing her childhood in New Jersey are some of the best writing I've read from a child's-eye point of view. You can't help loving the little girl who loves her brother and all her missing sisters, and you can't help loving the young woman who tries to make sense of a very chaotic situation.

It's not easy to write a book with so many characters in it and to make all of the characters memorable, but Mary Anna King succeeds at this, even though the relationships between characters are complex. As an adoptee, I appreciated her honesty and her insights about what makes a family feel like family - - she doesn't sugarcoat, but there's no bitterness here, either. A major accomplishment by a young and gifted writer.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Quick and dirty (in a good way)

Revisado: 05-01-15

If you could sum up Remnants of Passion in three words, what would they be?

Poignant, sexy, laugh-out-loud

What was one of the most memorable moments of Remnants of Passion?

Sarah in her tent at a Rainbow People Gathering, listening to people calling out to no one in particular, "We love you."

Which scene was your favorite?

The scene at the Good Vibrations vendor table.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Laugh, laugh, laugh -- but it also struck home in very personal, very emotional ways.

Any additional comments?

I started listening to this today on a 30 minute drive, and I couldn't wait to get back in the car to listen to more.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona