Wonderful, hopeful story!
Torey Hayden has been one of my all time favorite authors - easily in my top 5 or 10 favorite authors- since she started writing.
I have devoured every book several times over. She's in a completely different class than any other author who writes about abused children.
I will use this space to BEG. TO BEG TOREY HAYDEN TO PLEASE WRITE MORE BOOKS!
I'm soooo glad she has started writing again! There was a long, long stretch when she didn't write. I get that. I'm a NY Times and internationally bestselling author myself and I haven't written a new book in 13 years.
I get that it's hard to decide if a story is worth writing a book about - I also write nonfiction.
But truly, truly, any child she writes about she brings into full focus, and her empathy comes across so well, she brings humanity and lessons in empathy to the reader in every book.
Her books are her legacy, as much as her personal triumphs with children are. Every book is a treasure because of the depth of hope she brings, even to situations that seem impossible. Human beings who seem impossible.
She reminds me that almost no one is beyond salvage, unless they're psychopathic and truly evil, without conscience.
She shows that even those who seem to be impossible to reach can be reached! She has proven this over and over again. I've been reading her books for decades l, and I do think that they have had a huge impact on my own thinking and my own ability to empathize and see that people can be reached and can be loved in most cases.
There really IS hope for even the most messed up of us all, if we are willing to allow ourselves to get therapy, to find goodness and good people, to educate ourselves and seek truth, to heal, to grow, and to give.
She's not sappy. She's thoughtful and practical and seems quite honest about her own foibles and doubts, but she persists, and it pays off.
Please write more books, Torey Hayden! They're some of the very best books out there!