Silenced No More: Surviving My Journey to Hell and Back by Sarah Ransome
If you’ve ever questioned how a pedophile and a rapist can continue to ravage young women with seeming impunity for decades, read this book.
I used to watch a lot of true crime, fascinated by what drives an abuser to abuse. But after becoming a mom, my patience for abuser-focused storytelling wears thin.
I want the victim’s story.
I want to know how the victim is faring after their stint in hell, how their lives are irrevocably changed from their experiences, how their families responding and are holding up.
When I choose nonfiction titles, I usually do so with a particular learning goal in mind. After finishing Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story by Julie K. Brown, the investigative reporter at the Miami Herald, whose piece violently shoved Epstein’s crimes back into the public spotlight and ultimately led to his incarceration, I desired to hear from some of the young women who had become trapped in the pervert’s rape-grip.
Sarah Ransome was but one of Epstein’s victims, her memoir a harrowing account of her time in sex captivity. But her memoir also details how the events of her life, beginning in childhood, led the once-affluent young woman into the trafficking trap.
Following are quotes from Silenced No More that punched me in my blood pumper. The title of this article comes from one of the quotes listed:
History records the accounts of those who hog the pen, while the marginalized become faint and tiny footnotes, if even recognized.
The day you grow up is the day you grasp the truth: No prince is coming to save you. No magic horse exists. No paradise awaits you somewhere over the rainbow.
An enduring impact of childhood sexual trauma, particularly if it remains secret, is that it conditions the survivor to stifle his or her own wails . . . The rape and its hiding together stifle one’s voice.
“. . . This treatment reveals ‘the broad cultural antipathy toward treating sexual abuse as real harm,’ as [writer Moira] Donegan explains. It also shows that teenage girls matter much less than powerful men.”
— Dr. Deborah Tuerkheimer, quoted from her book, Credible: Why We Doubt Accusers and Protect Abusers
Association isn’t grounds for an assumption of guilt, and many sadists—though not so much Jeffrey—may successfully hide their violations.
You can spend decades bemoaning your fate. I’ve walked that dead-end road. The path of growth for me began with a forceful recognition: I am the common denominator in my story, the protagonist directing every scene and unseen, even if unwittingly. All plotlines, all threads, begin and end with me.
The path to healing winds through the land of hard truth, through realities that initially blister.
If you’ve ever questioned how a pedophile and a rapist can continue to ravage young women with seeming impunity for decades, read this book.
If you’ve ever questioned what leads a young woman into a life of prostitution—survival sex work—read this book.
If you’ve questioned how trauma can affect a person even decades later, read this book.
Sarah’s memoir, although powerful and important, is anything but happy.
Still, read this book. You may need the lessons packed in its pages to save a young woman in your life from becoming the victim of trafficking and sex slavery.
And to all the young women and men abused at the hands of the power-hungry ruling class, I see you; I hear you; your story is important. Share it.
♥ Fal
Thank you for sharing, Fallon. These are the hard truths we often pass by in the hopes of an escape into fiction or fantasy. But these are also the stories we need to hear, to understand, and to, hopefully, move the needle of power into that of the victims rather than the defilers.