The Long Shadow of Darkness: A Season of Remembering and Healing

Book excerpt: Moderately functional, 39-year-old Vicki, mother of 8, finally enters therapy for a single incident of molestation she remembered from age 11. Slowly, the spell of traumatic amnesia breaks and she begins to relive her childhood while doing memory work: first, the complicated shame of incest, then the horrific rituals and orgies of Satanism, and finally the utter degradation of a child brothel at ages 9 and 10. Retrieving these forgotten childhood memories upsets and stretches the family in unimaginable ways. Healing begins with equally surprising consequences.Vicki's memories reveal an engaging and endearing child, spunky and determined to fight the brutal brainwashing process designed to break her will and spirit. Her father-generous, charismatic, and successful-is a fascinating and complicated character study in true crime. Her mother, from an educated, upper-middle class, and well-respected home, is just as enigmatic as she seemingly closes her eyes to what is happening to her daughter. This book is an inspiring, one-of-a-kind journey through the nether world of memory into the darkest crevices of the human heart.