53 pages • 1 hour read
K.L RandisA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Brooke spends more and more time with Paul’s mother, Gina, as the two seem to need each other in their lives. Gina encourages Brooke’s passions and listens as Brooke discusses some of her experiences at home. When Gina brings up the possibility of counseling, Brooke laments that her mother refuses to pay for it. Gina suggests a free clinic specifically for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and when Brooke voices not knowing what domestic violence is, Gina explains it to her. A few weeks later, Gina takes Brooke to a Women’s Crisis Center. There, Brooke meets a counselor named Midge who speaks with soft-hearted honesty. Brooke asks Midge about abuse, and Midge uses a chart to explain emotional abuse, gaslighting, economic abuse (control), and sexual abuse, all of which Brooke realizes she has experienced. Brooke asks Midge what it means if a person “didn’t know they could say no” (158). Midge tells Brooke that sexual contact without consent is abuse, and that doing so with children is abuse no matter what, because children cannot consent. Brooke breaks down in tears, and Midge encourages her to keep the chart and visit again. Over the next few months, Midge helps Brooke open up. Brooke sleeps with the abuse chart under her pillow as a physical reminder of her suffering.
When Brooke’s father finds the abuse chart under her pillow, he tears it up and wrecks Brooke’s room, and charges through the house in search of someone to hurt. As he targets one-year-old Ethan, Brooke grabs her brother. She is knocked back by their father, and although neither she nor Ethan is seriously hurt, the moment is another wake-up call, as she realizes Ethan will have nobody to defend him when she and their other siblings move out. It occurs to Brooke that by keeping her father’s secrets, she is enabling his abuse, and decides to make an anonymous phone call to social services. Afterward, Paul breaks up with Brooke, citing stress and frustration as his reasons. A few days later, Brooke is confronted by a woman from Children and Youth Services at school. The woman asks questions about her abuse, and Brooke admits to her home’s lack of food and physical abuse but denies any sexual abuse. Two days later, Molly receives a letter stating that David might be guilty of sexual abuse, and she offers to change the locks and never speak to David again, but Brooke once again feels guilty for causing her mother stress and denies that anything happened. The case is closed two months later, and shortly after, Brooke is invited to visit her aunt in Long Island.
Brooke’s Aunt Jean and Uncle Bruce greet her and confess that they’ve heard about her home life from both Molly and Gina. They insist that Brooke, her mother, and her siblings come stay with them, and that Brooke can tell them anything. Brooke admits to being abused by her father, which causes both her aunt and uncle to break down in tears. They send Brooke home to talk to Gina before Gina meets with the police the next day. Brooke is shaking after finally revealing the truth but makes her way back to Pennsylvania. At Gina’s house, Paul asks Brooke to sleep in his bed, and when he tries to make a move on her, Brooke feels confused, as she was only hoping to be comforted. Paul insists she’ll never find a boy like him, and Brooke wonders if nobody will want her after what her father did. When she wakes up the next day late in the afternoon, her aunt and uncle are present, along with Gina and her husband. Gina asks Brooke to remember the details of her abuse to create a report to give to the police. Brooke reluctantly describes her father’s abuse, and her aunt and uncle break down. Brooke feels shame, but Gina insists she needn’t feel this way; everyone assures Brooke that she is safe now. For the first time in her life, Brooke feels inner peace. She realizes that Gina must have known about her abuse for years, but was waiting for Brooke to come forward so she could properly help her.
To protect herself and her family, Brooke chooses to detail only a few instances of her abuse. When Gina takes Brooke to the police station to file her report, Brooke feels uneasy at the blunt disposition of the officer. When the officer offers her the option to write her report instead of sharing it verbally, she obliges. Afterward, Gina takes Brooke home where her aunt and uncle are waiting to take Brooke, along with her mother and siblings, back to their house in New York. The plan is to ignore David’s phone calls and allow the police to investigate while the family stays safe. Brooke and her family stay in hiding for over two weeks as David goes from place to place searching for them, and Brooke has no choice but to ignore messages from Judd and Cristin. Upon hearing the song “Goodbye Earl” by the Dixie Chicks (a song about murdering an abusive husband) in the car, Gina suggests calling David “Earl” from now on, since he does not deserve the title of Dad or David. Brooke finds this idea appealing and refers to her father as Earl for the remainder of the novel. After the family spends almost three weeks in New York, the police have enough evidence to justify a protection order, and Brooke and her family head back to Pennsylvania.
On the way back to Pennsylvania, Brooke suggests the possibility of moving to a new house to start fresh and escape the memories that haunt their current house. Molly becomes defensive and rejects the idea, accusing Brooke of blaming her for Earl’s abuse and invalidating Brooke’s triggers. When Brooke returns to school, her friends are happy to see her and express how worried they were. Judd hints at a rumor about her and her family going around school. When Brooke sees Paul, he tells her that she’s disgusting and implies that she was voluntarily involved with her father. Brooke cries her way through the rest of the morning and leaves school, unable to handle everything around her.
Brooke’s first court date arrives, and she is shocked to learn she must describe her abuse on the stand in front of strangers and her father. She manages to answer the judge’s questions, and the judge rules in favor of the family’s protection order. A few days later, Judd takes Brooke to a fair, but Molly soon calls to warn Brooke that Earl is present. Brooke asks Judd to take her away in a panic, and Judd takes her back to his house to keep her safe.
Brooke’s resilience and limited resources can only take her so far, as she is still unaware of the factual side of abuse—where to seek help and how to come forward with one’s abuse. Several people become instrumental in helping Brooke learn about abuse, find the support she needs, and develop the courage and confidence to report her father and see through several trials. Brooke is initially unaware of how much Gina knows about her abuse, as Gina provides support from the sidelines. Rather than pushing Brooke to speak up, Gina offers herself as a source of warmth and understanding; she lets trust build over time. Gina also encourages Brooke to seek free counseling at a center called Women in Crisis. There, Brooke meets a counselor named Midge, and Midge becomes the second stable adult to ease Brooke into making her own decisions about her situation. Midge’s approach is to listen, educate, and guide, with one of her first lessons being that of consent: “In the state of Pennsylvania—no child, not one—can ever consent to anything sexual if they under the age of sixteen and if there’s a four year or more age difference between the two people. Never. You understand?” (158). She exudes a relaxing energy that allows Brooke to feel comfortable asking questions; as such, Brooke asks Midge about abuse and how to identify it. Midge teaches Brooke about every type of abuse using a pie chart, and Brooke realizes that her father is guilt of sexual, physical, emotional, and economic abuse. Armed with concrete, newfound knowledge, Brooke feels validated in her belief that her home life is toxic and becomes determined to change it. She sleeps with the abuse chart under her pillow, a reminder of the reality of her abuse after years of suspecting it was imagined or normal. David’s violent reaction to finding the chart is the final push that Brooke needs to make a call to social services, as her youngest brother Ethan is almost caught in the middle: “You, little man, are my saving grace” (165). Even then, she finds it difficult to be honest and come forward with her abuse, as she worries about what might become of her family. Brooke’s experiences with social services and the ways in which they push her to speak are one of many issues that Randis discusses in the conclusion.
When Brooke visits her Aunt Jean and Uncle Bruce in Long Island, they reveal that they’re aware of David’s abuse and are stepping in to protect Brooke’s family. When Brooke finally feels comfortable enough to disclose what happened to her, she feels a new sense of peace and relief. The Secrets and Denial that have weighed her down her whole life are lifted. In a symbolic act of vindication, Brooke renames her father Earl, no longer wishing to refer to him as Dad or David. “Earl” originates from the famous Dixie Chicks song “Goodbye Earl,” which details an abuser going free and being murdered. Brooke’s validation from Aunt Jean and Uncle Bruce, Gina, and Midge allows her to not only advocate for herself—showing What It Takes to Speak Out Against Injustice—but also force Earl to be tried for his crimes. When Earl is ordered to stay away from his family, the family moves back to Pennsylvania, but Molly refuses to move into a new house. After years of living there, she selfishly cannot bring herself to downsize for the sake of her children’s recovery from trauma. Throughout her life, Brooke has felt as if her mother has failed her in many ways, and this latest failure becomes the catalyst for Brooke to leave home for good.
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