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A Memoir
by Joy McCullough
For readers of Know My Name by Chanel Miller and fans of Broadway's John Proctor Is the Villain, a stunning memoir in verse about sexual abuse, survival, and sisterhood from the New York Times bestselling author of Blood Water Paint.
Joy McCullough's earliest memories are of time spent in church, moments when she climbed the steps to recite from the pulpit, just like her preacher father. But when she was a teenager in San Diego in the 1990s, her connection to her family and church were forever altered when a youth pastor groomed and sexually assaulted Joy.
In her debut memoir, McCullough pairs achingly raw poems recalling her abuse and its aftermath with hopeful, challenging verses about her life today as she seeks healing and justice in a country that rewards men for sexual abuse and still insists "girls these days will say anything."
Among the poems, McCullough also weaves prose letters to historical girls and women—from Joan of Arc to Abigail Williams—whose lives and stories were ignored when they were caught in the maelstrom of witchcraft accusations.
Suffer a Witch shines a bright, unsparing light on one woman's experience—and on those of generations of women who came before her.
"A harrowing yet galvanizing account of reclaiming one's agency." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Suffer a Witch is a searing, precise testament on the long tradition of not believing women. The juxtaposition of the Salem victims with modern patterns, expressed in verse, pulses and aches on the page. McCullough's words burn in this crucible of truth: these are the lengths men will go to when a woman cries abuse." —Tia Levings, New York Times bestselling author of A Well-Trained Wife
"From the quicksand of sexual abuse and survival, McCullough conjures the solid ground of healing. The solid ground every survivor deserves to experience—of our belonging to ourselves; of naming harm as harm, when and how we can; of taking back everything we can; of never having to go back to anywhere we cannot. This book is a gift."—Ashley Hope Pérez, award-winning author of Out of Darkness
This information about Suffer a Witch was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Joy McCullough is a playwright and the New York Times bestselling author of several books for children and young adults, including Blood Water Paint, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and was a finalist for the William C. Morris Award. She studied theater at Northwestern University, fell in love with her husband atop a Guatemalan volcano, and writes books and plays from her home in the Seattle area.
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