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No Matter Our Wreckage
- Narrated by: Megan Smart
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
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No Matter Our Wreckage
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Publisher's Summary
My mother knew I was abused as a child. She had read letters sent from my abuser to me...but she never spoke to me about them or what they described. And she never intervened to stop the abuse...now she is dying and the past is rising to the surface like a bruise.
When Gemma Carey was 12 years old, a man twice her age would sneak into her bedroom on a weekly basis and sexually assault her. When Gemma was 17, she took the perpetrator to court without anyone else knowing and had him placed on the child sex offenders register. When she was 33, her mother died of cancer. For 20 years, her mother had known about this man. But why had she not acted to protect her daughter? Could the genesis of this betrayal be found in her own family history?
No Matter Our Wreckage is the story of past and present colliding. It seeks to capture the complexity of forces that lead to abuse; to understand the intertwined narratives of mothers and daughters and how trauma becomes encoded in our DNA through generations. It explores grooming and the intricacies of consent, and how as a society we have not yet figured out how to deal with these types of crimes or the people who commit them.
No Matter Our Wreckage is a powerful, poetic and unflinching memoir about what it means not to matter and how an extraordinary woman refused to listen to the stories she was being told about herself - by her history, by her abuser, by her mother, by society. It is only by speaking out that Gemma Carey learns she can break free from her past and reclaim her life, her self and her future.
Critic Reviews
"Personal and political, unflinching and generous. Carey writes with a researcher's curiosity and a survivor's urgency." (Emily Maguire, author of An Isolated Incident)
"A devastating and clear-eyed memoir with a poet’s voice. Gemma Carey will boil your blood and break your heart." (Anna Spargo-Ryan, author of The Gulf)
"Powerful, raw and incisive...Gemma is unflinching in her personal investigation of family and trauma." (Ginger Gorman, author of Troll Hunting)
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What listeners say about No Matter Our Wreckage
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Disappointed
- 23-06-2023
Thought provoking
Thought it was a ‘just’ about a relationship between mother and daughter. But it was so much more than that. Very enjoyable.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hildegaard von Bangem
- 01-12-2022
Beautiful, sad and compelling
This deeply moving memoir about intergenerational trauma, the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and who our families are, and how we learn to come to terms with complicated, fractured familial relationships was haunting and cathartic. Some of the harrowing material was hard to hear, because it hit so close to home, but overall I felt it gave me new perspective on some of my own painful childhood memories.
Megan Smart's narration was perfect and added an extra layer of powerful rawness to the beauty of the words. The best audiobook I've listened to this year, undoubtedly.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kate
- 10-11-2020
Gripping and relatable
I'm no professional book reviewer or writer so all you need to know is that I loved this book. It made me see all the more how amazing Gemma is to overcome all she has, and gave me hope that I can too. I appreciate the destigmatization of abuse she shares. I've learned a lot about trauma from this book that I can use in my own life.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Brett
- 16-05-2021
Poignant, timely and very relatable
As a CSA survivor who just lost my mother to breast cancer this book felt very close to home. The open and honest telling of Gemma’s story was fascinating and to follow her journey of loss, grief and discovery was wonderful. Highly recommended.
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