Along Came a Spider
Tony Holland
District Real Estate – Company Director
This book is just Incredible, absolutely a no holes barred no crap account of the sad sick world we live in, sharing the most intimate survivor stories about the most disgusting predators I have ever read about.
Also, a beautiful story of the wonderful people that have been able to move past the extreme horrors of their pasts and move forward with incredible courage to share their experience.
I, like so many others find child abuse one of the worst crimes an adult can inflict on a child. Neil Atkinson explains “The Judas Moment” where the child no longer processes their childhood.
I can’t imagine that. It’s impossible. Like most people who have not known such evil. Before reading this book, I saw media accounts of child abuse, thought it evil and passed over. To be honest it really didn’t register.
After Neil sent me his book to review and I asked others, I was shocked how many did the same, it just didn’t register. But reading the personal accounts suddenly you are forced to see what a hideous crime it is, the long-term consequences, and police say abuse is increasing.
Unless we all pay attention, victims are doubly violated because I’m told being the abused can be the loneliest place on earth. Even when the abused does break their silence, the reaction is almost always silent I was told. Sad, sympathetic, disbelieving, appalled, embarrassed… but almost always, silent. Tomorrow we will all move on as if nothing of note was ever said.
Survivors telling their story alone is not enough, we need to hear what they’re saying for anything to change. Reading this wonderful book will make changes happen.
Healing starts when these survivor experiences are acknowledged, they want us to know about these difficult issues. If we ignore them society loses, acknowledging the people in this amazing book and other survivors is the only way for social and cultural change to happen.
I am embarrassed to be a professional, part of society and I really had no idea of these crimes. Or the consequences. Society must read this book.
It is obvious these “spiders” want their victims shamed into silence. When that happens society won’t “see” their crimes. Not hear their victims. Nothing changes.
Hopefully, we can all read their accounts and learn to see the signs so this can be stopped. Ultimately, we just hope and pray for these survivors. But more than that I am aware, I now know what to look for thanks to this brave book.
Pass over this book child abusers win. Read and learn society wins and stands together against a great evil.
Lauren White
Along Came A Spider gives long overdue voices to survivors of sexual abuse. Although confronting, to censor this book would be to take the truth away from the recollections of survivors. There is a need to hear these stories, to know what did happen and what is still happening. A need to not bury our heads and say “it won’t happen to me” or “I will never let that happen to MY kid.”
This book highlights to me as a parent, a survivor of sexual assault and someone who is cautious, that we HAVE to keep talking about it. It’s never going to go away. By listening to these stories and believing these stories and believing those who come forward after reading this book – and there WILL BE more people who come forward, we can change the script from silent victim to survivor-thriver empowerment. We can take away the power of the perpetrators and give survivors a voice to speak up.
Dr. Darlene Barriere
Trauma and Child Abuse Counsellor and Psychologist
“From Victim to Victory: A Memoir” is available from my web: www.child-abuse-effects.com
IN SO MANY WAYS, although personal accounts are at times difficult to read, Along Came A Spider is a book celebrating victory of the human spirit over personal tragedy.
It is not a book of tears and sad stories, but inspiring lives where you cheer for sexual abuse survivors who show the way with courage to rebuild their lives and not let their experiences frame or shame them.
As a professional trauma councillor and child abuse psychologist of over four decades, what struck me personally was how many of the survivors reached out for help from institutions they were taught from children to “trust”. Police, teachers, doctors, mental health workers, scout leaders, welfare agencies, the list goes on.
All around these institutions lay brutalised lives of abuse victims desperately needing to be heard, to be rescued, but as the author Neil Atkinson says, “they were too high up and too far away.”
Within these pages are so many lessons and warnings for institutions and organisations charged with protecting and responding to incidences of suspected or actual child harm or abuse.
At a time when child abuse is increasing around the world, this is a must read book because you live in a society where these crimes happened, are happening, and as a parent, partner, relative or friend you want to stop them happening and protect our most vulnerable from societies “spiders”, those in board rooms, in Churches, those pumping gas or living under the same roof.
From powerful “survivor-thriver” personal voices, the reader gains critically important insights into how to recognise child abuse risks, strategies to prevent abuse, and what to do and how to respond if unfortunately child abuse occurs.
This book empowers the reader to sit up, be aware of at-risk, exploited or vulnerable children and take serious action on predators making them accountable to society.
In addition, I strongly recommend this book as an invaluable aid for professional therapists at all junctures of trauma management, how child abuse survivors are talked about and approached, how survivors can slip through the net unrecognised, and the need to rethink how counsellors and other professionals interact with their child abuse survivor clients.
My heartfelt congratulations to Neil Atkinson for this extraordinary and inspiring book. My heartfelt thanks to the so brave contributors who stood up, then sat down to tell their heart moving, so courageous stories.