Abuse Survivor Stories

Sarafina Bianco was once a teacher with dreams far outside the classroom. When her boyfriend cheated on her, Sarafina eventually looked online for his replacement. She met Mike. This memoir puts to rest a broken home. Each chapter is a different glimpse into the cycle of domestic violence, where honeymoon phases and traumas coexist. Everyone could fall victim to abusers.

Stories domestic violence survivors who escaped their abuser, reclaimed their dignity, reconstructed their life, and rediscovered peace. Domestic violence doesn’t just happen “out there.” It happens in our neighborhood and on our street. It happens to women we see at work, the supermarket, and the PTA board meeting. Find encouragement and hope in the voices of these who broke free.

Married to a charismatic police chief who exchanges his congeniality mask for abuse, battery and rape. Local authorities and the community are blind to her ER visits and deaf to his arrogant boasting of burying a woman alive. Along this dark journey, Jayne reveals how to begin an exit strategy; how to save critical documentation, tips for keeping invisible, and encouragement to regain your life.

Abuse thrives in the silence. Join the author on her mission to bring to light the biggest, silent epidemic man has ever known; 29 brave women and men, including the author, provide you a peek inside the true darkness if their lives lived in domestic violence, and their encouraging battles to escape.

Abuse happens to people who are talented, independent, confident and educated, who had happy childhoods, loving parents, to people who have everything going for them. Many will recognize the author’s devotion to family that can bind victims to abusers, and find inspiration in author’s journey to reclaim a future for herself and her children.

Actor shares her story in the hope of empowering others to speak up (or to leave) before it’s too late. Leads the reader through her life, her positive upbringing in the Bronx, and emphasizes the reliability of that inner voice everyone has; reader learns what defined April’s voice, and is asked to dive deep into themselve and decide what it is that is defining their own. Its their choice.

In this riveting memoir, Mildred Muhammad, the former wife of convicted “D.C. Sniper” John Muhammad, breaks her silence about the domestic violence she suffered during their marriage and the tragic events that occurred after their divorce, which led up to the October 2002 sniper killings in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

This book is an account of the resources for survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) and IPV survivors’ experiences with them in three communities in the United States.

In her second memoir, I’m Still Standing, Mildred Muhammad picks up where she left off in her first book and tells about the compelling events that occurred during and after the conviction and execution of her former husband, John Allen Muhammad.

Donna Kaz was 24 years old when she moved to NYC in 1977 and landed a job serving beers and burgers at the classic bar, Jimmy Day’s. She was on her way until a tall, blonde, handsome actor sat in her station during a lunch shift. The actor was William Hurt who swept Kaz off her feet and carried her to Hollywood and back for a 3-plus year love affair that was fantastical and physically dangerous.

Untethered from a seemingly idyllic life with a handsome but abusive attorney husband, Michele Weldon relates the challenges and triumphs of the years that followed her divorce as she maneuvers through a complicated life of long daily commutes, radiation treatments, supporting the boys all-consuming high school wrestling careers and trying to mitigate their resentment at an absent father.

TRIGGER WARNING Her father died of an overdose when she was two. Her mother turned to drugs and alcohol, leaving Tracy in the care of grandparents. Homeless as a teenager, she became a stripper to support herself. When Frank sweeps her off her feet she can finally have the life she’d been aching for. She didn’t know about his controlling and abusive personality.

Leaving Dorian is a story about finding hope and embracing the unknown, as recounted by domestic violence survivor Linda Dynel. This fast-paced, riveting memoir takes the reader with Ms. Dynel on every step of her journey; from hurriedly throwing her children’s clothes into garbage bags and gathering the weapons that her husband had stockpiled to protect his family during the Apocalypse that he…

The true story of my transparent journey through a life of many sunshiny days mixed with a lot of raging storms. My life can be likened to the characters portrayed in such movies as “Woman Thou Art Loose”, “Scandal”, “Enough”, “Vanilla Sky”, “Chicago”, “For Colored Girls” and “A Mother Betrayed”, because I personally endured each of the raging storms depicted in those productions.

A Safe Place for Women tells a harrowing, but ultimately hopeful, story of one woman’s ordeal with an abusive husband and how she gained the strength to leave him and thrive in a new life with her children. Noted women’s advocate Kelly White unsparingly revisits the dark periods of her husband’s irrational, violent moods. Her narrative makes clear why women often stay in such situations–and al…

In No Visible Bruises, journalist Rachel Louise Snyder gives context for what we don’t know we’re seeing. She frames this urgent and immersive account of the scale of domestic violence in our country around key stories that explode the common myths-that if things were bad enough, victims would just leave; that a violent person cannot become nonviolent; that shelter is an adequate re…

It is a hell of a thing to write about brutality and suffering with strength, grace, generosity and beauty. Thats precisely what Kelly Sundberg has done in her gripping memoir about marriage and domestic violence. Sundbergs honesty is astonishing, how she laid so much of herself bare, how she did not demonize a man who deserves to be demonized.

In the 1970s, when Maria Jordan, daughter of a pastor in Ohio, moves to Atlanta, known as the Black Mecca, all her dreams look like they’re coming true. Statuesque, sporting the popular Afro and tailored mini-skirts of that era, the college grad is making mega-money in a corporate job. She’s ready to settle down, find a suitable husband, and begin a family, but life can be lonely for a single w…

It was 1969, and all the rules were changing, when Betty, a woefully single French teacher on Long Island, met the handsome but edgy new teacher at her school, a hippie just back from Woodstock. His vitality opened up a new world to her—but when they married, his rages turned against her, and often ended with physical violence. Like millions of women who discover they’ve married an abusive man,…

Monique Faison Ross, the daughter of San Diego Charger’s football great Earl Faison, married her high school sweetheart soon after she discovered she was pregnant with his child. Her relationship with Chris had always been shaky, but his verbal abuse only increased—and then gave way to physical attacks. Eventually, Monique took their children and left. That was when the stalking and ser…

April Hernandez Castillo is an actress, author, and speaker. As a survivor of Intimate Partner Violence, April now serves as a role model for thousands of people across the United States and around the world. One of her biggest dreams came true when she was invited to present on the prestigious TedX stage. Determined to make a difference, her mission is to educate her audiences about the power …

Surviving is unlike any memoir of survivorship, given its nuance, compassion, and candor. Above all, it is an exquisitely powerful testament to Gooden’s healing, survivorship, and dedication to helping others do the same. The voice and fire behind #WhyIStayed, Bev Gooden is exceptionally positioned to explore the many reasons victims stay in abusive relationships, and how they can muster the re…

Told in alternating perspectives that deftly interweave past and present, Something Wild is a magnetic, unflinching portrait of the bond between sisters, as well as a psychologically acute exploration of the legacy of divorce, the ways trauma reverberates over generations, and how it might be possible to overcome the past.

When a destructive affair with an older, married boss ended in sexual assault, Linda was grateful her husband took her back. The reconciliation was short-lived. Linda quickly found herself drawn to another older, married man. Even though he was selfish and controlling, she needed to be the one he chose. She got her wish, but shortly after he proposed her repressed memories of childhood sexual a…

Domestic abuse thrives in secrecy and attempts to crush the spirit of its victims. But not all victims remain defeated. Hearing the stories of those who survived and triumphed can be a lifeline to those still trapped in abusive relationships — and an inspiration to us all.

This book was written as a lifeline for women who are involved with men who lie, cheat, and mistreat their wives or girlfriends. Readers join a support group of four smart, educated women with careers and families who were lied to and devastated by the people who promised to love, honor, and protect them–their husbands. This book is the next best thing to attending a support group.

At 22, Leslie Morgan Steiner seemed to have it all: good looks, a Harvard diploma, a glamorous job in New York City. Plus a handsome, funny boyfriend who adored her. But behind her facade of success, this golden girl hid a dark secret. She’d made a mistake shared by millions: she fell in love with the wrong person.At first, Leslie and Conor seemed perfect together. Then came the fights she trie…