Books › See What You Made Me Do
Stella Prize 2020
See What You Made Me Do
684 pages
A searing, deeply researched investigation that dismantles the flawed logic of victim-blaming and exposes the mechanics of intimate control.
What it feels like
Reading this book is a sobering, deeply confronting experience that demands your full attention. It moves at a steady, deliberate pace, carefully balancing exhaustive sociological research with riveting, urgent storytelling. The mood is undeniably heavy and harrowing, reflecting the dark realities of intimate partner violence and psychological control, yet it is pierced by a searing, righteous clarity. The prose is analytical but deeply empathetic, dismantling victim-blaming logic while exposing the institutional betrayals of the judicial system. It is an emotionally taxing but essential journey, moving from the darkest corners of domestic abuse to a powerful indictment of the systems that enable it. This is a crucial read for anyone seeking an unflinching, rigorous examination of systemic failure and the true nature of coercive control.
- Mood
- sobering
- harrowing
- heavy
- righteous
- Tone
- confronting
- searing
- analytical
- urgent
- empathetic
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- systemic failure · psychological control · institutional betrayal · dismantling victim-blaming · the mechanics of abuse
- The writing
- Combines exhaustive, deeply researched journalism with riveting, accessible storytelling.
- The arc
- Moves from a harrowing confrontation with the realities of intimate abuse to a searing, righteous clarity about systemic failures.
- Who it's for
- Readers seeking a rigorous, unflinching sociological examination of domestic violence and the systems that enable it.
Content notes
- domestic violence
- psychological abuse
- child abuse
- systemic trauma
- victim blaming
About the book
Women are abused or killed by their partners at astonishing rates- in Australia, almost 17 per cent of women over the age of fifteen - one in six - have been abused by an intimate partner. In this confronting and deeply researched account, journalist Jess Hill uncovers the ways in which abusers exert control in the darkest - and most intimate - ways imaginable. She asks- What do we know about perpetrators? Why is it so hard to leave? What does successful intervention look like? What emerges is not only a searing investigation of the violence so many women experience, but a dissection of how that violence can be enabled and reinforced by the judicial system we trust to protect us. Combining exhaustive research with riveting storytelling, See What You Made Me Do dismantles the flawed logic of victim-blaming and challenges everything you thought you knew about domestic and family violence.
Description from Open Library.
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