Stranger My Skin Alysa Phillips
Can you imagine cutting away bits of wrist skin with a toenail clipper until it meets the tender sheath of the vein? Alysa Phillips can. This young author, who became entangled with a menacing boyfriend, his cult-leader father, and the deranged vagabond who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart, helps us perceive such bizarre acts of hurt to one s own body. Growing up in a conventional Utah town with an exacting father who even counts the family’s food, she later becomes involved with a polygamous cult and tries to cope with her respective traumas through self-mutilation. You may check out a video intro to the book at: http://blip.tv/file/213649
ReviewEven after years of listening to stories of childhood abuse and sexual assault, reading this intellectual young author’s intimate psychological journeying took me to a deeper understanding. It was a Being John Malkovich experience, a sensation that made it difficult to put the book down, as though her life continued while I was away and I wanted to be there in case she necessitated me. It felt that intimate. Any reader of Stranger in My Skin will gain an understanding of the phenomenon of self-injury and experience the shattering of a good deal of of it is standard myths. The author’s unbelievable persistency to educate herself, work emotionally, and break her silence with written word, is an impeccable depiction of how survivors describe being drawn to follow their soul’s way. – –Dena Bohn, Psy.D., L.P.
Sometimes, each once in a while, a book is born from bravery. These are the books that hug our hearts, hug our souls and make us human. Stranger in My Skin is such a book. –Front Street Reviews
About the AuthorAlysa Phillips holds a B.A. in journalism from Brigham YoungUniversity. She has set up house in Alaska, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Utah. At 27, Alysa attends graduate school at Emerson College. She and her husband live in Boston.
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Most helpful client reviews
11 of 11 humans found the following review helpful.
 Gripping Work of Emotional Honesty
By Elaina
As a somewhat-former cutter, I’ve read all (that I recognise of) the available memoirs in regards to cutting, and this one is in all probability the best. The author describes vividly the sensations that have led her to cut, and I found that her words mirrored my own sensations and experiences. In addition, Alysa is just in general a outstanding writer, putting phrases together beautifully and elegantly. It’s a pleasure to read well-written literary nonfiction, even if the topic is a difficult one.
7 of 7 persons found the following review helpful.
An in an emotional manner overpowering testimony that cannot be put down.
By Midwest Book Review
Stranger In My Skin is the true-life essay of author Alysa Phillips, whose adolescence in a traditionalisti Utah town turned dark and oppressive due to her controlling father and her involvement with a threatening boyfriend and his cult-leader father. The physical, sexual, and aroused abuse she suffered in her childhood left long lasting scars that simple “geographic cures” of moving herself from one place to another could not heal. Post-traumatic stress syndrome from the horrors she experienced drove her to mutilate herself and undertake suicide. Her survivor’s story of a long, slow struggle toward the semblance of a normal life is an in an emotional manner overpowering testimony that cannot be put down.
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