Redemption

Lannert, Stacey. Redemption: A Story of Sisterhood, Survival, and Finding Freedom Behind Bars. New York: Crown Publishers, 2011.

Stacy's father sexually abused her for most of her childhood.  No one else in her family believed it was happening.  Stacy endured the abuse, counting down the days until she could leave home, but the last straw for her was the day her father raped her little sister.  Her father had taken to sleeping by the front door with a shotgun in case the girls tried to sneak out. As she and her sister sneaked out of the house, Stacy shot and killed her father.

Through an unfortunate twist of the legal system, Stacy was convicted and sentenced to life without parole. She spent eighteen years in prison before the governer granted her a pardon and she was able to rejoin the rest of society. 

I was expecting this story, especially with its title, to have a religious aspect to it.  I was also expecting more emphasis on Stacy's journey of "finding freedom" while in prison and as she was released.  Instead, this book goes into great detail describing Stacy's childhood and the abuse she endured, and sadly she did not actually undergo a great transformation in prison.  She did detail her journey of healing from sexual abuse, which I appreciated,

This was an interesting story, and abuse survivors may find it to be helpful to read of another survivor's healing, but because of the graphic nature of the abuse descriptions, I cannot recommend this book to the general populace.