When Rabbit Howls: Between the Sheets, Ch2

This is going to be our safe spot to discuss, dissect, and share the books and authors who have brought us pleasure and pain. Happiness and distress. Satisfaction and unease. Hope you enjoy these reviews, of both authors and books, and maybe find a new favourite of your own.

This book shattered my heart, then put it back together again.

My lovelies!

Let me share a book with you that will tear your heart out, rip your soul to shreds, then renew your faith in healing, from the inside out. It is a core memory that will be with me forever and a day. But, first, a little bit about my reading history.

Like HC, I grew up with my head buried in a book. I’ve read most of the same books she has, with a far larger ABR list (Already Been Read) of dark, gritty stories. Anne Rice, Mary Higgins Clark, Dean Koontz, and Stephen King were my playmates. Hell, they helped this awkward, ambivert get through high school. And that was not an easy task.

You should’ve seen some of the dark pieces I wrote. Even had my HS besties - you know, the ones you couldn’t live without then, but haven’t spoken to in years - worried I was going to hurt myself. I wasn’t. That would’ve really hurt and, as much as I like reading and writing that stuff, I have never been a big fan of pain.

What I am a big fan of is stories that highlight the inner strength of their characters. The ones that showcase the resilience and fortitude of the human spirit. <shrug> Maybe that’s why I loved this book so much. First published in 1987, I read it when I was 16-years-old. Old enough to know better, but still young enough to feel invincible.

The eighties were all about self-improvement, but only if you followed society’s roadmap to betterment. Truddi Chase began her very long, winding road of healing as a child, before she even understood what that meant. She embodied an individualized healing journey. One that bucked society’s expectations and brought mental health to the forefront, all while embracing and supporting her as she navigated life after physical, mental, verbal, and sexual abuse.

Truddi Chase grew up, from a very young age, with a stepfather who victimized and abused her throughout her life. Some instances of her abuse discussed in the book haunt me to this day, 38 years later.

That, my lovelies, is how you know you have read a fantastically written story. I strive to write stories like that.

Born in 1935 and raised through the Great Depression and World War II, Truddi Chase lived through unimaginable horrors as a child. Horrors she, and her 92 identities, buried until she was in her forties.

Yes. Her psyche birthed 92 identities to help protect the innocent child she was. Even writing this now, I can remember the emotions that coursed through me while reading it. I am tearing up, as if I were reading it now.

If you live on the darker side, either in your life or your mind, this book will walk you through the minefield to the salvation on the other side. But you must be prepared for the brutality of what some men think is acceptable treatment of women and children, often girls.

Truddi’s parents should never have had the responsibility of raising a precious little girl but, in the time she was in their care, children were viewed more as property than people. The abuse she suffered was inexcusable, unacceptable, and absolutely disgusting… but it was also a well-known secret that it happened in far more families than ever reported it.

Forewarned is forearmed, so consider this your warning about When Rabbit Howls, by The Troops for Truddi Chase. However bad you think the story is, it is ten times worse. And will haunt you for the rest of your life. Only you can decide if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

This story will also feed your soul and renew your determination to be the best you that you can be. You know what one of my biggest lessons from this book was? Oddly enough, I just figured it out now, as I wrote this review.

Rabbit taught me to care of your mental health, a lesson that has been years in the learning but began when I was a teenager, heartbroken for that shattered little girl. The troops protected Truddi the only way they knew how, by compartmentalizing her experiences and placing an identity on them as a means of insulating them from her. It worked. More than four decades would pass before Truddi would meet all of her protectors and remember her experiences.

At the time I read this book, it never occurred to me that I may have done the same thing, but there are empty pockets in my memory. Pockets I am sure have moments of my life locked away in them, but I cannot remember them. It is a documented fact that trauma will blank out your memories, especially negative ones. Trauma won’t always give you dissociative identity disorder, but it, along with your brain, will find a way to protect yourself. That was a rough realization for me. I only faced that this past year or so. I’m working through my own healing journey, but I am glad to have the support I have behind me. My tribe is small, not nearly as large as Truddi’s, but it is every bit as feral.

I read this book almost four decades ago, but I will never read it again. It etched itself into my soul. Truddi, her troops and, more than any of the others, Rabbit shared their stories and stole a little bit of my innocence along with them. I am glad they did. It changed me, for the better.

It is my belief that this book helped shape the woman I grew into, but it also helped give me the strength to keep moving forward when it was easier to lay down and cry. If Truddi can move on and live a life after what she suffered, surely I can do the same.

Tread lightly with this book, for When Rabbit Howls will bring the walls down around you… right before the Troops build them back up again. Please drop me a note if you read, or have read, this book. It’s a life changer.

Keep reading all the words, my lovelies.