Broken

Can’t have an exit if they will place the order and send it to you but yet you’ve already paid for it

How this little angel survive this abuse and betrayal was beyond anything imaginable! Ms. Keenan summed it up perfectly with an excerpt in the book : [as she got older] "my vision was now twenty-twenty, my hearing and speech had vastly improved, but the more I could see and hear, the less I wanted to. The more I could understand, the more I longed for the days when I wasn't really aware of what was happening to me or around me. The more I could speak properly, the less I wanted to say. I felt like I was disappearing inside myself." I hugged my daughter so much while I read this book, wishing young Shy could feel them.

"Broken" by Karen "Shy" Keenan is an incredible read. What sets this memoir apart from others of this type of genre is the attention to the stages of recovery one goes through when recovering from abuse. Anyone who has experienced incest/sexual abuse as a child can relate to Keenan's story of surviving long past the actual abuse. Hers is a story of courage and of perseverance; and Keenan handles the telling of her story with the same strength she used to survive her childhood. One cannot help but feel empowered after reading how Keenan pulled through the hell of her childhood. Most memoirs are written to encourage, to teach and to inspire others who may be struggling with like situations, "Broken" does all of these. Keenan asks for no pity, sympathy or praise for overcoming her ordeal, but merely for readers, government agencies and all others to listen to and to protect children from predators of all kinds.

I was shocked how a sick, twisted man (if you can call him that-he's more like animal!)could treat an innocent child! I almost cried many times thinking about how hard it must have been to endure such torture and the mom is just as gulity for not believeing her and not protecting her and also abusing her by beating her too. I work with kids and am going to be even more diligent about spotting warning signs of kids being abused so more kids don't have to go through the unthinkable things these poor kids had to go through. Wonderfully written book about an amazing person who miraculously survived all of this and now is helping others not have to go through the same thing, talk about turning around bad for good, amazing!

This is a book you cant put down, sometimes you may need to take a break because itis such a heart breaking story. It is hard to imagen a child going thru what Shy went through. This book goes to show you, just because you have a horrible child hood it is really up to you how you live your life once out of the situation. If Shy can become a person of admeration and strength anyone can.

This book is absolutely heartbreaking. I've read a lot of books about abuse and this one, is to say the least, startling. How the author survived, I have no idea but it makes you respect her.

This is such a sad, sad story. How can any logical person think that a little 4 year old girl could want to have sex all the time? Her stepfather raped her and her younger sister every day, but when she tried to tell her mother or social worker, the stepfather said that she tries to pull his pants down and forces herself on him all the time. This is disgraceful. This book is a very personal memoir of Shy Keenan. It is well worth reading if you can overcome the graphic content.