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vickybreton's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Addiction, Child abuse, Alcohol, Body shaming, and Eating disorder
thelifeoflaura's review against another edition
4.0
Lucia Osborne-Crowley didn't tell a soul when she was raped aged fifteen. Then, eighteen months after she was attacked, her body began to turn on her - and what followed were sudden bouts of searing, unbearable pain that saw her in and out of hospital for the next ten years.
In My Body Keeps Your Secrets, Lucia opens up about her story as well as the voices of women and trans and non-binary people from around the world. Widely researched and boldly argued, this book reveals the secrets our bodies bury deep within them, the way trauma can rewrite our biology, and how our complicated relationships with sex affect our connection with others.
It’s a hard, but eye opening read of what is, sadly, a common experience for many women, trans and non-binary people. She opens up about rape, eating disorders, body-image, her struggles with endometriosis and Crohn’s disease.
I have feelings about how it was writing - I think it’s such an important book for giving people the voice they have never had the chance to have, but at times I felt that it was a bit of ‘here is this harrowing story’, now let me jump in with my even worse experience, as if Lucia was, at times, trying to story top. For some of the stories, I just felt like their voices should have been left to stand as is, with Lucia sharing her own experiences in a separate chapter or later on. I just found myself, at times, feeling like I was being interrupted in hearing these stories.
Despite that, it was brilliantly collated and I loved that she went to the effort to getting a wide array of interviewees in her story to try and give voice to everyone. It’s a harrowing read, but poses some interesting questions about these difficult topics. I hope that we continue to see books like this to encourage people to have hard conversations and speak up.
In My Body Keeps Your Secrets, Lucia opens up about her story as well as the voices of women and trans and non-binary people from around the world. Widely researched and boldly argued, this book reveals the secrets our bodies bury deep within them, the way trauma can rewrite our biology, and how our complicated relationships with sex affect our connection with others.
It’s a hard, but eye opening read of what is, sadly, a common experience for many women, trans and non-binary people. She opens up about rape, eating disorders, body-image, her struggles with endometriosis and Crohn’s disease.
I have feelings about how it was writing - I think it’s such an important book for giving people the voice they have never had the chance to have, but at times I felt that it was a bit of ‘here is this harrowing story’, now let me jump in with my even worse experience, as if Lucia was, at times, trying to story top. For some of the stories, I just felt like their voices should have been left to stand as is, with Lucia sharing her own experiences in a separate chapter or later on. I just found myself, at times, feeling like I was being interrupted in hearing these stories.
Despite that, it was brilliantly collated and I loved that she went to the effort to getting a wide array of interviewees in her story to try and give voice to everyone. It’s a harrowing read, but poses some interesting questions about these difficult topics. I hope that we continue to see books like this to encourage people to have hard conversations and speak up.
jaclyn_sixminutesforme's review against another edition
5.0
There have been some tremendous releases in the last few years by writers examining personal and collected experiences of shame, sexual violence, trauma and abuse. Chanel Miller and Bri Lee’s memoirs are two I recommend paired together quite a lot, and I am now adding Lucia Osborne-Crowley’s work into this oeuvre. Both Miller and Lee are visible influences on the writing and thinking in this book, the structure and division of the book into parts a direct nod to Miller and the “reactions in the aftermath.” The extensive bibliography and intertextual referencing in the writing show how much this text is writing into an existing body of work by global thinkers, conscious of its contribution as much as it is of the work done by others already.
I particularly enjoyed the way personal writing in this overlapped so seamlessly with the curated selection of interviews with women and nonbinary people—there was an empathy with the subject matter and care in what level of information was shared that shone in the writing (and the explanation of method in the early parts of the book really frames this more explicitly, helpfully so for context).
I loved the theme based meaning each chapter had, I only wish the chapters had been titled or led with a quote (the epigraph shares some brilliant ones, and the quotes embedded throughout the writing are so perfectly selected!) to give some framing and insight into what each chapter would delve into—while there’s narrative and thematic elements to the writing, it seems to hold back from putting experiences in these neatly separated categories (which, despite my comment about chapter naming convention, I think worked really well! I also read an ARC so not sure if the finished copy is different)
I found the discussion towards the end of the text about trauma and it’s connections to chronic illness really interesting, and I know this is something I heard Astrid Edwards discussing on her podcast (Anonymous Was a Woman)—can’t wait to keep reading what Osborne-Crowley writes and the nuanced attention to details she invests in her research methods and writing itself.
Many thanks Allen & Unwin for a review copy.
I particularly enjoyed the way personal writing in this overlapped so seamlessly with the curated selection of interviews with women and nonbinary people—there was an empathy with the subject matter and care in what level of information was shared that shone in the writing (and the explanation of method in the early parts of the book really frames this more explicitly, helpfully so for context).
I loved the theme based meaning each chapter had, I only wish the chapters had been titled or led with a quote (the epigraph shares some brilliant ones, and the quotes embedded throughout the writing are so perfectly selected!) to give some framing and insight into what each chapter would delve into—while there’s narrative and thematic elements to the writing, it seems to hold back from putting experiences in these neatly separated categories (which, despite my comment about chapter naming convention, I think worked really well! I also read an ARC so not sure if the finished copy is different)
I found the discussion towards the end of the text about trauma and it’s connections to chronic illness really interesting, and I know this is something I heard Astrid Edwards discussing on her podcast (Anonymous Was a Woman)—can’t wait to keep reading what Osborne-Crowley writes and the nuanced attention to details she invests in her research methods and writing itself.
Many thanks Allen & Unwin for a review copy.
juliadejong's review against another edition
5.0
Ahh, nothing like a book screaming at you that you need to get back to therapy.
This was absolutely brilliant and beautiful.
This was absolutely brilliant and beautiful.
brookesbookstagram's review against another edition
5.0
TW: body image, mental health, sexual assault, physical assault.
In My Body Keeps Your Secrets, Lucia shares the voices of women and trans and non-binary people around the world, as well as her own deeply moving testimony. She writes of vulnerability, acceptance and the reclaiming of our selves, all in defiance of a world where atrocities are committed and survivors are repeatedly told to carry the weight of that shame.
This book took my breath away.
I related, I wept, I felt deeply.
I thought of my own experience, and never sharing until I was in my thirties and how lifting that emotional, mental and physical weight off me, how much better, safer and healtier I felt.
Thank you Lucia, it's exactly what I needed.
In My Body Keeps Your Secrets, Lucia shares the voices of women and trans and non-binary people around the world, as well as her own deeply moving testimony. She writes of vulnerability, acceptance and the reclaiming of our selves, all in defiance of a world where atrocities are committed and survivors are repeatedly told to carry the weight of that shame.
This book took my breath away.
I related, I wept, I felt deeply.
I thought of my own experience, and never sharing until I was in my thirties and how lifting that emotional, mental and physical weight off me, how much better, safer and healtier I felt.
Thank you Lucia, it's exactly what I needed.