65. What is a Girl Worth?

What is a Girl Worth? Rachel Denhollander. 2019.

What is a Girl Worth? This is the memoir of Rachael Denhollander, who is the mastermind and driving force behind the finally successful prosecution of Larry Nasser. There is a lot to love about this book. The description of her sexual abuse is explicit, but given the circumstances, it had to be for the reader to really understand the level of sophistication that this pedophile had. On the down side, I was disappointed about how little she talked about her own healing. She comes from an evangelical Christian perspective and, despite a prior history of sex abuse within her church, she found solace in the church and scripture pretty much just skims over any complexity from this respect. There are a couple of places where she alludes to more complexity around her relationships and her sexuality, but for the most part she dodges these questions. It makes the book feel like it is written more to raise awareness about grooming and the problematic access that is given to powerful men over young girls in athletics, which of course is an important theme for a particular audience. I was disappointed she wasn't more open about her own healing because I think there is dearth of literature out there providing guidance about how to heal from child sex abuse and I see this as a missed opportunity for survivors to get a glimpse of one way that can be done. That said, if you can get by the trite religious messaging that occasionally crops up, I high recommend that everyone read this. If you ever wondering how a serial pedophile can get away with decades of abuse with hundreds of targets, you won't wonder after reading this. RECOMMEND.

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