Charred Souls: A Story of Recreational Child Abuse

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Summary: Charred Souls
Review: I love this book. I would recommend it to anyone with a strong heart. A rewarding story.

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Summary: Inspiring new minds
Review: I loved this book and plan on using it to teach my high school students. Everyone should know that this does exist and we need to do something to stop it.

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Summary: Charred Souls...A story of recreational child abuse.
Review: I read this book on a flight back from England. My mother sent it to me while I was there and I got sucked into the story after sitting down for 15 minutes one night because I couldn't sleep. The entire flight I was unaware of my usual worries, like the wing falling off, the engine catching on fire, etc. because I was too concerned with my book. This book is a tearjerker, but also a realistic view of abuse. It is a cold truth that makes you think, but do not be scared. 5 stars.

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Summary: Charred Souls review
Review: I really loved this book. It read incredibly well and kept me so involved I didn't like to put it down. It helped me understand why certain people do things they do. This book opened my eyes to the horrors of child abuse, and helped me realize how fragile life is and the things we take for granted. I am certainly more thankful now, for everything I am blessed with.

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Summary: charred souls review
Review: i used this book as a reference for my social work project. it encompasses such a wide spectrum of abuse and neglect, it is a perfect reader for any college class. i would recommend this book to anyone with a strong enough heart. trena cole does an excellent job of conveying her feelings as an innocent little girl.

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Summary: I identify with this story...
Review: I was abused as a young child and was always terrified to tell. I went through many of the same things as Trena Cole, and as scary as it is that other people go through that, it's comforting not to be alone in knowing what it feels like. She says she was scared to tell her story and I understand that. Many people go through abuse like this and no one ever knows. I hope that her story will encourage more people to speak out, and maybe help them to feel safe and liberated.

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Summary: Finally a Name For It
Review: I'm glad someone finally came up with a name for the enjoyment some adults seem to get from abusing children, Recreational Child Abuse. That's exactly what it is when someone takes delight in beating or degrading a child. I have never seen it to the extent Trena Cole and her siblings did, but I've seen enough to know it exists. This is an eye opening book for anyone who works with children professionally or personally, icluding parents. It gives insight to the symptoms people can watch for if they are in a position to protect a child. I would highly recommend it for anyone considering foster parenting. It might help them understand why the children they foster are the way they are sometimes. As I read the chapter about her foster parents I was hoping and praying they would be her saving grace and, although things didn't work out like she hoped they would, she did learn a lot and take it with her. They might very well have been what saved her.

As I read about the physical abuse these children suffered I cringed, but the emotional and mental abuse I read about kept me up at night. No child should have to live the nightmare these kids lived, but children still do everyday. Hats off to Trena Cole for telling it like it was, and calling it what it is, Recreational Child Abuse.

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Summary: An inspiring story
Review: My foster brothers went through some of the same ordeals that Trena and her siblings endured. I felt so many emotions as I read her book, it took me to places that didn't seem real before. The book was heart-wrenching but enlightening. It is painful to realize the world is full of things like "recreational abuse" but this story shines a light on a world uncharted.

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Summary: Stongly recommended for citizens, parents and professionals
Review: Paradoxically the very things that make Charred Souls: A Story of Recreational Child Abuse  by Trena Cole perplexing for an academic reviewer are the strong points that make the book well worth the read. The author does not offer a theoretical perspective on chid abuse and, other than concluding that her parents abused her because they enjoyed it, she does not seek to explain it. The authenticity of the descriptions are wrenching as the author relates horrendous accounts of brutal, humiliating, chronic abuse of a young girl's first eighteen years of life. It goes far beyond what even the most skilled Munchausen patient could concoct. Yet the tone of the writing is refreshing for the absence of self-serving and indignant claims. Throughout, the author is telling the reader what happened. The writing will be hard to discredit for even the most skilled of those who seem to want to deny the existence of abuse of the kind Ms. Cole experienced.

At the author's therapist's suggestion, she called it "recreational abuse", i.e., done for fun, kicks, and recreation. For the fun of seeing their children's terror, the parents drive out in the country and abandon the children. The children are made to witness one of their pet dogs shot with the threat that the killing is a justified punishment for disobedient dogs and children. The most severe beatings and toxic humiliations were daily affairs. At age six, the author was forced to work in a store for fifty-cents a day which was turned over to the mother as her share of help to support the family. Years later, the author learned that the man in the store was an already known child molester when she started work there. He sexually abused her while she was employed at the restaurant starting when he insisted on examining her to prove that she was not a boy since boys were not allowed to work at the store. The author concluded that her mother enjoyed her daughter's anguished pleas to quit the job. There is an eye opening description of her punitive, involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. The palliative and positive effects of an all too short stay with a foster family lead her to the first realization that not all adults were like her parents. As early as age four she was charged with the care of what became six siblings. Her caring attempts to protect them were carried out at a high price. In a later section of the book the author discusses the dilemma posed by the life saving admonition that "If you are going to make it a double drowning, don't go in".

Reading this book provides a good look into a life of chronic and extreme abuse and neglect, their effects and the author's struggles to overcome them.

The conspicuous absence of intervention throughout the author's childhood by anyone in a position of authority during the less enlightened 1950s and 1960s is no less forgivable than is the blatant under resourcing of children's protective services today  at a time when we supposedly know better. In the current "killing the chickens because we won't wait for eggs" economy, we can pay now or pay more later. The current costs of having over two million Americans in jail (a higher rate of incarceration than any other "developed country") gives one clue to the price of indifference and the lack of prevention. In economic terms Charred Souls gives an excellent view of the human cost. While Ms. Coles very survival is miraculous, it is important for the reader to be mindful of the fact that thousands of American children are not so fortunate and suffer truly lifelong unrepairable damage or worse.

I cannot imagine that anyone could read this book and not be deeply moved and troubled. Thus, I strongly recommend its reading, for ordinary citizens and parents, and for those professionals involved in the protection, care and treatment of our children.

Roderick Durkin, Ph.D...

Rating:
Summary: Stongly recommended for citizens, parents and professionals
Review: Paradoxically the very things that make Charred Souls: A Story of Recreational Child Abuse  by Trena Cole perplexing for an academic reviewer are the strong points that make the book well worth the read. The author does not offer a theoretical perspective on chid abuse and, other than concluding that her parents abused her because they enjoyed it, she does not seek to explain it. The authenticity of the descriptions are wrenching as the author relates horrendous accounts of brutal, humiliating, chronic abuse of a young girl's first eighteen years of life. It goes far beyond what even the most skilled Munchausen patient could concoct. Yet the tone of the writing is refreshing for the absence of self-serving and indignant claims. Throughout, the author is telling the reader what happened. The writing will be hard to discredit for even the most skilled of those who seem to want to deny the existence of abuse of the kind Ms. Cole experienced.

At the author's therapist's suggestion, she called it "recreational abuse", i.e., done for fun, kicks, and recreation. For the fun of seeing their children's terror, the parents drive out in the country and abandon the children. The children are made to witness one of their pet dogs shot with the threat that the killing is a justified punishment for disobedient dogs and children. The most severe beatings and toxic humiliations were daily affairs. At age six, the author was forced to work in a store for fifty-cents a day which was turned over to the mother as her share of help to support the family. Years later, the author learned that the man in the store was an already known child molester when she started work there. He sexually abused her while she was employed at the restaurant starting when he insisted on examining her to prove that she was not a boy since boys were not allowed to work at the store. The author concluded that her mother enjoyed her daughter's anguished pleas to quit the job. There is an eye opening description of her punitive, involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. The palliative and positive effects of an all too short stay with a foster family lead her to the first realization that not all adults were like her parents. As early as age four she was charged with the care of what became six siblings. Her caring attempts to protect them were carried out at a high price. In a later section of the book the author discusses the dilemma posed by the life saving admonition that "If you are going to make it a double drowning, don't go in".

Reading this book provides a good look into a life of chronic and extreme abuse and neglect, their effects and the author's struggles to overcome them.

The conspicuous absence of intervention throughout the author's childhood by anyone in a position of authority during the less enlightened 1950s and 1960s is no less forgivable than is the blatant under resourcing of children's protective services today  at a time when we supposedly know better. In the current "killing the chickens because we won't wait for eggs" economy, we can pay now or pay more later. The current costs of having over two million Americans in jail (a higher rate of incarceration than any other "developed country") gives one clue to the price of indifference and the lack of prevention. In economic terms Charred Souls gives an excellent view of the human cost. While Ms. Coles very survival is miraculous, it is important for the reader to be mindful of the fact that thousands of American children are not so fortunate and suffer truly lifelong unrepairable damage or worse.

I cannot imagine that anyone could read this book and not be deeply moved and troubled. Thus, I strongly recommend its reading, for ordinary citizens and parents, and for those professionals involved in the protection, care and treatment of our children.

Roderick Durkin, Ph.D...