This Happened To Me: A Reckoning by Kate Price: REVIEW
Synopsis
The inspiring memoir of a woman who realizes as an adult that her abusive father trafficked her as a child. She must then set out to not only heal from her physical and psychological wounds, but also to prove to herself and the world that the horrific crimes she remembers truly happened.
My Review
Wow. First of all, I have to commend Kate Price for her bravery. I don’t know how she came through the abuse she suffered as a child, let alone went on to thrive in adulthood. And to then come forward and be so open about her experiences is incredibly inspiring. I’m sure this book will help a lot of people suffering similar traumas.
Kate Price is the subject of Janelle Nanos’ Boston Globe article “Kate Price Remembers Something Terrible,” an article that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2022. She’s also a patient of Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk, author of the bestselling book on healing from trauma The Body Keeps the Score, for which she was a case study. So her traumas have already been well documented. With this memoir, though, she gets to recount the key moments in her life, both good and bad, on her own terms and in her own words. It’s a truly captivating account.
“This happened to me, so it’s happening to you.”
It’s not uncommon for someone who was abused as a child to pass that abuse on to the next generation. But still, Kate’s father excusing his behaviour with “This happened to me, so it’s happening to you” gave me chills. Kate says that writing this book is a betrayal to her family, who previously took the secret of their abusive legacy to the grave. Well, that’s an honourable betrayal if ever there was one. It isn’t lost on me that with the title of this book, Kate has turned her father’s excuse into her battle cry – because, despite the many disbelievers in her life, THIS HAPPENED TO HER. But it doesn’t have to happen to anyone else.
This is a powerful, moving, captivating, traumatizing read that’s more important in our post-Me-Too, post-Epstein era than ever. Trafficking victims need to know that nothing that’s done to them is their fault. Abuse is the shame of the abuser, not of the abused. And whether you want to believe it or not, human trafficking takes place right under our noses every single day. Keep your eyes open, and believe it when it’s revealed to you.
Just one tiny nitpick
The only thing that threw me off while reading this book (and I’m only mentioning it because I feel it could be used to question the authenticity of Price’s story) is the dialogue. Anytime quotation marks are used in a memoir, what’s inside them should be taken with a grain of salt. Unless the conversations were recorded, there’s a good chance they’re not 100%, word-for-word accurate. I’m sure the vast majority of discerning readers realize that.
The problem is, Price relies pretty heavily on quoted conversations, and they all have an over-polished sheen to them. People don’t talk like that, and it started to bug me after a while. It made certain passages sound less genuine, and that’s the opposite of the intended message of the book. I guess I wish Price had relied less on quotes and more on paraphrasing.
Conclusion
Nevertheless, this is a spectacular memoir and an inspiring life story that deserves to be told. Just know that it goes into detail about child abuse and rape, so don’t push yourself to read it if that would be triggering for you.
You can purchase This Happened To Me right here on Bookshop.org*, or look for it wherever you get books.
*As an affiliate, I’ll receive a small commission from any purchase made through this link.