Review: Impaled on the Horns of the Devil by Barbara Boatwright

ISBN #: 978-1456753672

Page Count: 260

Copyright: 2011

Synopsis:

With courageous confession, the author describes her high school romance, laced with parental opposition, the pull of premarital sex, and an awareness of guilt before God. After less than a year of marriage to her high school sweetheart, when she begins to recognize her parents' concerns as valid, she meets a man who becomes a destructive force in her life. He encourages her to divorce her husband and instead, become dependent on him for emotional support. With painful honesty she relates how he gains manipulative control over her emotions and moral standards. She joins him in defying biblical commandments and societal conventions. Readers who have suffered through failed marriages will understand her struggles. The author winds up her memoir by observing what in her background contributes to vulnerability and control by a man who seems to represent the devil. She tells how she eventually escapes from him and an emotionally abusive second marriage. She offers insight to parents and teens about both positive and negative relationships between them, and how those relationships powerfully influence the lives and marital decisions of young adults.

Charlene's Review:

Impaled on the Horns of the Devil is a memoir described by Ms. Boatwright as "The Development of Vulnerability to an Abusive Marriage." This 247 page book details her struggle with emotional abuse in the hands of her husbands. It is a painfully open and honest look at a young girl that overlooked all the parental and spiritual lessons in her life, and the consequences she faced. The fact that it took place in the 1950s, a time where domestic violence was not mentioned, and that she then successfully overcame her abusive past, makes it especially endearing.

Ms. Boatwright bares all in the hopes of reaching out to other women in abusive relationships, or before they embark on relationships. An easy read that focuses on the need to open up communication between teens and parents. She shows, through her own past, the cycle of abuse, the signs to look for, and how her faith in God helped her find her way out.