August 2025

At the beginning of the year, I decided that I wanted to spotlight some titles that I would call “issue books” --- nonfiction that looked at topics that I think are worth exploring. THIS HAPPENED TO ME by Kate Price is one of those books.

At a young age, Kate, who grew up in Appalachia, spent lots of time reading books and finding refuge at the children’s department of her local library. There she could “visit” different places and find adventure and warm family stories, which were very different from what she saw at home. Her father was violent, her mother lived in fear of him, and she frequently was pitted against her older sister in abusive ways.

Kate worked hard at school knowing that an education could be the way out of the unsafe world in which she was wrapped up. Her family had been trapped in poverty, addiction and violence for generations. She would head away from them but often would be drawn back out of some familial necessity. This push and pull would be a constant battle for her.

Kate knew that there was “something wrong” with the way she had been brought up. Her family did not look or act like those of her friends. She had memories of dark things happening to her, but she was not in a position to unravel what had occurred when she was young. She married a wonderful man and brought a child whom she adored into her life. But she continued to feel that something was off.

So Kate sought counseling with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk (author of THE BODY KEEPS SCORE) to help her work through the bits and pieces of memories she had. She would unwrap the fact that she had been sexually violated by her father, and he had trafficked her to men at truck stops in the area. In the course of examining what had happened to her, she would come to realize that others in her house had been victims as well.

The story is sad but not sordid. It’s an exploration of a young life that was abused, but of a woman who survived. I read it quickly, and as I closed it, I was smiling as I realized that through the work she did, Kate got herself to a wonderful place on the other side. While the material is intense, Kate’s writing is so well done that you will keep turning the pages.