Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

Adults who witnessed violence between their parents when they were children often carry emotional scars that last a lifetime. The trauma to their developing brains can be so great that some psychologists have compared it to what soldiers experience in war. Like soldiers, children from violent homes are hyper-alert and expect to see danger at every turn. Since they don't possess the skills to process what they have witnessed, these children
often suppress the memories well into adulthood. It often takes employment and relationship problems, a mental health diagnosis, addictions, and other serious life issues for them to make the connection between the events of their painful upbringing to what they are experiencing in the present.

As a society, we tend to minimize the effects of domestic violence, especially for those who witnessed it without experiencing direct abuse. Children are especially vulnerable because they are completely dependent on their parents for survival. They don't want to do anything that might upset them even more. Although their behavior might say otherwise, these kids often insist that they are fine.

In this autobiographical book, author Lisa Kroulik takes readers back to her early childhood when she witnessed her father abuse her mother and some of her siblings on several different occasions. Ms. Kroulik discusses the abuse only to set the backdrop for the rest of her story. She then goes on to talk about the multiple devastating effects that witnessing abuse had on her as she became an adult. As she discusses each issue, the author traces it back to its origin in order to understand and release it.



My Review:
This book is not a novel, a short sweet read that has a happy ending, but the life experiences of a woman who survived growing up in a household of abuse.  While it is a difficult book to read, it is one that can open the eyes of many who do not realize the extent to which abuse, whether personally experienced, or watched through the eyes of a child as it is happening to others; can significantly impact that person in ways that often are not seen until well into adulthood.

This was a very difficult book for me to read and still haunts my dreams even now, days after I finished reading it.  I wasn't sure what to write in my "review" as I felt such a personal response to the "child" in the story.  It is well worth reading, but not for the faint of heart, or young readers, or anyone who is not willing to take the subject of abuse seriously.  Please read with an open mind, and a prayer in your heart.

*During my review time, the ebook was redone and reposted under a new title and new cover, but the story remains the same.

Invisible Witness can be found on Amazon for only $1.99