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Where Predators Sleep: Memoir
In 1992, I was 33 years old. The previous year, my father had died and three months after his death, I quit drinking. It was then that many feelings surfaced. I no longer felt I knew who I was or how I’d gotten to where I was in life. Or if I’d ever consciously made a choice or simply survived.
It was as if I’d been sleepwalking through my life and was finally waking up to begin a journey inward to find the lost parts of myself.
The parts that had lived in the shadows until it was safe to emerge.
There has been and still is controversy surrounding repressed memory. Some people believe in it, while others believe recovered memories are false.
All I can tell you is my story and let you decide what you believe.
It was as if I’d been sleepwalking through my life and was finally waking up to begin a journey inward to find the lost parts of myself.
The parts that had lived in the shadows until it was safe to emerge.
There has been and still is controversy surrounding repressed memory. Some people believe in it, while others believe recovered memories are false.
All I can tell you is my story and let you decide what you believe.
346 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 20, 2024
1 person want to read
About the author
Barbara Carter
9 books59 followersBARBARA CARTER
Visual Artist. Author. Instructor.
Barbara Carter writes real life stories that reads like good fiction.
Raw and real. Telling it like it is.
Dealing with issues we often do not want to talk about.
How we relate and how we fail to relate to one another.
Each book can be read as a stand alone, or in series order.
Though the first three books work best if read in order.
Carter's focus is to go back in order to heal and move forward.
Each memoir can be read as a stand alone, or in order.
Barbara Carter regularly published on Medium.com
https://medium.com/@barbaracarter_631...
Visual Artist. Author. Instructor.
Barbara Carter writes real life stories that reads like good fiction.
Raw and real. Telling it like it is.
Dealing with issues we often do not want to talk about.
How we relate and how we fail to relate to one another.
Each book can be read as a stand alone, or in series order.
Though the first three books work best if read in order.
Carter's focus is to go back in order to heal and move forward.
Each memoir can be read as a stand alone, or in order.
Barbara Carter regularly published on Medium.com
https://medium.com/@barbaracarter_631...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 10, 2024
*Trigger warning* sexual abuse
This memoir (the final of six volumes) covers the two years the author spent in therapy trying to understand and heal from childhood trauma.
Six volumes! No, this isn’t the usual structure of memoir. But this choice to write it in six parts became clear as I read along. If these books were pieces of visual art, I would think of it as the final panel in an epic installation that would be almost overwhelming in its scope.
You can’t take it in all at once, because you’re not meant to. You’re meant to experience what the author has experienced, step by step, year by year. For example, the first volume, Floating in Saltwater, is written from the point of view of a young child. From the simple language to the accepting or bewildered tone, the reader stands in the shoes of young Barbara.
The school days, the wild rebel days, the tumultuous relationships days. We are there for all of it. These memoirs are an immersive experience.
So this final volume puts what came before in perspective. It opens with her father’s sudden death in the same house with the same people showing the same patterns of behavior. But the author decides to change the pattern.
And to paraphrase Robert Frost, that made all the difference.
She quit drinking. She decided to go to therapy. She decided she wanted more out of her relationships, and she pushed for change in the face of a lot of resistance. Since this was the early 1990’s she got her inspiration and information from books, women’s groups and the wisdom of her own body and mind.
It’s an amazing story.
Her therapist leads her through her numbed-out disassociation to the fragments of her psyche that are calling out in pain. Memories are recalled and reassessed. Through figurative language and photos of her art, the author shows us this process. She labels the unthinkable, she engages with the neglected parts of her psyche, she integrates the good and the bad, the shadow and the light.
It’s a lot.
In between therapy sessions, the author worries about grinding money problems and the logistics of keeping a family going while also creating art.
That’s a lot, too.
I was moved and inspired by this book, beautifully illustrated with her art. Highly recommended.
This memoir (the final of six volumes) covers the two years the author spent in therapy trying to understand and heal from childhood trauma.
Six volumes! No, this isn’t the usual structure of memoir. But this choice to write it in six parts became clear as I read along. If these books were pieces of visual art, I would think of it as the final panel in an epic installation that would be almost overwhelming in its scope.
You can’t take it in all at once, because you’re not meant to. You’re meant to experience what the author has experienced, step by step, year by year. For example, the first volume, Floating in Saltwater, is written from the point of view of a young child. From the simple language to the accepting or bewildered tone, the reader stands in the shoes of young Barbara.
The school days, the wild rebel days, the tumultuous relationships days. We are there for all of it. These memoirs are an immersive experience.
So this final volume puts what came before in perspective. It opens with her father’s sudden death in the same house with the same people showing the same patterns of behavior. But the author decides to change the pattern.
And to paraphrase Robert Frost, that made all the difference.
She quit drinking. She decided to go to therapy. She decided she wanted more out of her relationships, and she pushed for change in the face of a lot of resistance. Since this was the early 1990’s she got her inspiration and information from books, women’s groups and the wisdom of her own body and mind.
It’s an amazing story.
Her therapist leads her through her numbed-out disassociation to the fragments of her psyche that are calling out in pain. Memories are recalled and reassessed. Through figurative language and photos of her art, the author shows us this process. She labels the unthinkable, she engages with the neglected parts of her psyche, she integrates the good and the bad, the shadow and the light.
It’s a lot.
In between therapy sessions, the author worries about grinding money problems and the logistics of keeping a family going while also creating art.
That’s a lot, too.
I was moved and inspired by this book, beautifully illustrated with her art. Highly recommended.
September 24, 2025
I didn't know what this part of her memoir was going to be about, but the title certainly suggested which direction it was going to go. It was intense, I won't lie, but the honesty and raw emotion of the text was nothing less than I would expect from Barbara Carter. I also loved this journey of hers through art and dreams. I loved all of her books and this was no exception! Highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews