MC and her brother are surrounded by predators, and it's fucking sickening. The lawyer is despicable, the pedophile even worse, and the aunt's comment that the brother is "at fault" for his SA made my blood boil. He was, and still is, a child. The story captures very realistically how threats and psychological control work in an abusive household. The FL was conditioned to believe she's a burden, that everything is her fault. The brother, meanwhile, was groomed into thinking he was responsible for his own assault, silenced with threats, and forbidden to tell his sister. Mc was forced to grow up too quickly, carrying the responsibilities of the adults who failed her, all while being resented for things she had no power over. Her baby brother, drowning in fear and trauma, turned his anger on her, the closest figure he expected to protect him. I don't blame him for that. But I also don't blame her. Being "the adult" was never meant to be her role: she was a child too, suffering through her own abuse. And no, her pain wasn't limited to "just a slap" as some claim. The slap was only one glimpse of a much bigger pattern. Abuse doesn't have to be tallied like points in a competition, both siblings endured it, both are victims, and both deserve freedom from it.
MC and her brother are surrounded by predators, and it's fucking sickening. The lawyer is despicable, the pedophile even worse, and the aunt's comment that the brother is "at fault" for his SA made my blood boil. He was, and still is, a child. The story captures very realistically how threats and psychological control work in an abusive household. The FL was conditioned to believe she's a burden, that everything is her fault. The brother, meanwhile, was groomed into thinking he was responsible for his own assault, silenced with threats, and forbidden to tell his sister.
Mc was forced to grow up too quickly, carrying the responsibilities of the adults who failed her, all while being resented for things she had no power over. Her baby brother, drowning in fear and trauma, turned his anger on her, the closest figure he expected to protect him. I don't blame him for that. But I also don't blame her. Being "the adult" was never meant to be her role: she was a child too, suffering through her own abuse.
And no, her pain wasn't limited to "just a slap" as some claim. The slap was only one glimpse of a much bigger pattern. Abuse doesn't have to be tallied like points in a competition, both siblings endured it, both are victims, and both deserve freedom from it.