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16 Must-Read Books On Abuse | Best Books on Abuse

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This article showcases our top picks for the ‘Best Books On Abuse’. We reached out to industry leaders and experts who have contributed the suggestions within this article (they have been credited for their contributions below).

We are keen to hear your feedback on all of our content and our comment section is a moderated space to express your thoughts and feelings related (or not) to this article This list is in no particular order.


The GIft of Fear by Gavin de Becker

This product was recommended by Alicia Hough from The Product Analyst

In this book of Gavin de Bdecker, he discusses the origins of fear and how it is a factor in the development of mankind. A book that is a great resource for women as the author will enlighten the reader on signals that predators use to try and gain control over you. This is an eye opener for individuals, especially women, that they will be able to recognize potential danger.


Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft

This product was recommended by Alicia Hough from The Product Analyst

A book that will surely change one’s perspective. A good book recommendation for individuals who are in abusive relationships, may it be with your partner or family member. Not just them, it is better to read this even if you’re not in one, as a precaution for yourself.


A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer

This product was recommended by Brack Nelson from Incrementors

This is one of those books you love but almost regret reading because of the frightful memory it leaves behind. This is a story of physical abuse, but the mother’s primary aim is to control the child psychologically. The mental pain was so strong that David would not move even when she left him alone. The neglect extended through the family, the neighbors, and the school system. The determination and dedication of this child saved him alive.


The Gaslighting Recovery Workbook by Amy Marlow-MaCoy

This product was recommended by Alicia Hough from The Product Analyst

Emotional abuse, once experienced will give you a thought on giving up on life but this book will tell you that there is hope and that your life is not supposed to end there. As you go on reading, there are ways the author of the book can be of help in your situation. This too shall pass.


Healing from Hidden Abuse by Shannon Thomas

This product was recommended by Alicia Hough from The Product Analyst

Psychological abuse leaves no broken bones and mostly hids in your used to environment. A book where survivors will see how being abused is not their fault and that they are not alone. If you’re a victim of psychological abuse, this book might be the key to your recovery.


Mothers Who Can’t Love by Susan Forward

This product was recommended by Alicia Hough from The Product Analyst

Not all mothers are capable of love. This book shows the many faces of an unloving mother. Also, will help you work on the process of healing from this kind of emotional abuse.


Under the Staircase by Darla Colinet

This product was recommended by Jolene Rheault from Refreshing Solutions

Under the Staircase, for your consideration. Under the Staircase is a spiritually stirring memoir of one woman’s journey to find her self-worth despite the obstacles put in her path by her parents, her abusive husband of thirteen years, and herself.


The hate you give by Angie Thomas

This product was recommended by Jill Sandy from Constant Delights

The Fiction book sheds light on the racial abuse through the eye of Starr Carter, a 16-year-old black girl, who watched a white police officer shoot her friend dead. The author artfully narrates us through the story as we see how Carter deals with the aftermath of the incident. Best sentence for takeaway from this book: “What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?” A movie adaptation (with the same name) of this book speaks volume about the power it resonates with readers. The recent strong movements of Black Lives Matter puts the book more at heart with the current situation


The 6-Figure Battered Wife by TaJuan “TeeJ” Mercer

This product was recommended by Chantay Bridges from Bridges Publishing House

While working on some of Television’s biggest shows, holding it down in Hollywood, TeeJ was being held down in her own home. Under the delusion that Domestic Violence only happened to underprivileged, uneducated, so-called “weak” women, TeeJ had a hard time resolving that it could happen to a Howard University educated, focused, and accomplished woman. As a 6-figure earner, a successful business woman in her own right, TeeJ found herself in the incomprehensible position of walking on eggshells in her own home, questioning her competence and sanity, feeling that she had gone crazy. But one day she made the startling realization that she wasn’t crazy; she was sleeping NEXT to C.R.A.Z.Y. This book will not only show you the signs of abuse but give you hope, that you too can turn the page and never face abuse again.


Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror by Afarin Majidi

This product was recommended by Dee Ishura from N/A

Most survivors of abuse have been conditioned since childhood to accept abuse as part of a package that also contains love. Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror takes you through the harrowing experience of one such woman as she jumps from one abusive relationship to the next, blind to the choices she’s making. While some passages are difficult to read, in the end, the book is a testament to overcoming. This book is an important account of breaking the cycle of abuse.


Living in the Thriver Zone by Susan M. Omilian JD

This product was recommended by Sharon Castlen from Butterfly Bliss Productions

Susan M. Omilian has written a series of three books in The Thriver Zone Series…..they take the woman from a victim to a survivor to a thriver helping them find a life of power and purpose as they move through this journey. All of her books have full national distribution for online, bookstores and libraries. Yes, they are all on Amazon. October 17 is the launch of the third book in the series Living in the Thriver Zone – A Celebration of Living Well as the Best Revenge. The first two are Entering the Thriver Zone and Staying in the Thriver Zone.


Women Who Were Sexually Abused as Children by Teresa Gil

This product was recommended by Teresa Gil from Teresa Gil Ph.D.

There are approximately twenty-two million mothers in the United States with a history of child sexual abuse (CSA). This book presents interviews with eight brave women who were generous enough to share their stories, struggles, and triumphs as they strive to love and care for their children. Unraveling the veil of silence and capturing the experiences of mothers who were sexually abused as children is first step in both supporting mothers and disrupting the cycle of intergenerational abuse. Each story reveals the concerns, the needs, the difficulties, and the fears these mothers confront as they parent their children while struggling with their own past experiences. The mothers I interviewed stated they felt the existence of emotional barriers that reduced their capacity to be loved and to express love in healthy ways. They felt overwhelmed and did not know how to set healthy boundaries and they did not know how to protect themselves or their children. The women wanted to break negative behaviors, thought patterns, and defenses that at one time had helped them manage the dysfunction and violence they experienced as children but no longer worked for them as adults. However, more importantly, the book explores the protective factors in their lives that helped to support resiliency in their mothering and to “defy the odds” in order to give their children something significantly different from what they experienced as children. This book is written for adult mothers who were victims of childhood sexual abuse, family and friends that want to assist her, as well as for helping professionals.


My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem

This product was recommended by Aida Manduley from AidaManduley

This book does something quite special: using knowledge from a mix of fields, including history and neurobiology, it describes how racialized violence in the United States can be traced through to the way white supremacy and white-on-white violence flourished in places like Europe. Not only that, but it compassionately connects this to modern-day police violence, and provides many examples of how to challenge and dislodge these patterns from an embodied perspective rather than merely an intellectual one. If you’re wondering how the physiology of trauma connects to community healing and legacies of violence, especially with an eye toward interrupting them and truly understanding how police violence affects even its perpetrators, this book is a great read.


Healing Sex by Staci Haines

This product was recommended by Aida Manduley from AidaManduley

This is a good, comprehensive text about the body-mind connection in how they experience, and how one can heal after, sexual trauma. I read the older version, but from all I have read, the new version is almost identical, just with a different title and a few edits here and there. While the book centers surviving and healing from childhood sexual trauma, it is not exclusive to that experience, and most of it can be useful even if that is not your situation. It has a wonderful combination of theory, practical exercises, validation, and prompts, and even a reading list in the back. One of my critiques, however, is that it’s very focused around cisgender and heterosexual experience (it does have some language around other experiences, but not much), so there may be some “translation” needed if your experiences with your body are not those.


The Long Tail of Trauma By Elizabeth Wilcox

This product was recommended by Elizabeth Wilcox from ElizabethWilcox

Given the reported surge in abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic, this soon-to-be released book, The Long Tail of Trauma, holds particular relevance for the growing number of people who will struggle to care for loved ones who are victims of childhood abuse. Set against a twenty-year dialogue between a daughter and a mother who suffers from long undiagnosed PTSD, The Long Tail of Trauma offers a 20th century historic narrative that gives voice to women who have suffered Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) and abuse. This compelling multigenerational memoir is supported both by the author’s research and her work developing training content in early childhood education and trauma-informed care.


Surviving a Cyberstalker by Alexis Moore

This product was recommended by Alexis Moore from Surviving a Cyberstalker

Surviving A Cyberstalker is a must have book to help one prevent and defend against abuse on and offline! A must have book in the cyberage,

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