Precious

by Sapphire

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Wow.

This book is incredible. It hurt. It's powerful and painful and essential. It apologizes for nothing and shows the raw truth as the protagonist sees it. I wouldn't say I loved it, because it time it made me sick, but I think it's IMPORTANT.

Precious Jones has been used and abused and imprisoned in a cycle she wants to break. Her mother molested her. Her father has raped her... repeatedly. Both her children, one with severe Down Syndrome, were conceived through incestuous rape. She has no future and instead she is trapped in the past - in disappearing within herself when it's all too much, and yet, she has to carry on. So Precious takes a leap and starts attending an adult education program... and slowly but surely, she takes control of her life.

This book is a lot. It's filled with trigger warnings for sexual abuse of all kinds and domestic violence and the language is intense. It's going to make everyone who reads it uncomfortable, but it's an important story to tell. It's told by an #OwnVoices author who herself experienced sexual abuse (though not to this magnitude). The protagonist, Precious, is a unique heroine in that she's an overweight black girl who was first pregnant at 12, and then against at 16, and she is still a force to be reckoned with. Her family sees her as a welfare check and even her social worker sees her as a potential pawn to move into the home care industry. Only in her adult education classes and in her journal is Precious treated like a PERSON. Push reads like a journal. We're able to see her journey as through taking control of her literacy, Precious takes control of her life.

It's powerful, as I said, but it's also one of the most difficult books I've ever read. I think people reading this will be uncomfortable and offended. The language used here includes slurs and offensive material, which it includes ON PURPOSE, so that's something else to be aware of.

If you think you can stomach it... I think this is an important book to read. It offers a view that will make you check your privilege. It reminds us there are heroes of all shapes, sizes, colors, and backgrounds. And it offers a story you won't often see told.