I ordered this book through interlibrary loan and was interested enough in it that I read it fairly quickly. Having said that, this is not a light, self-help-type read. The intended audience is not the victim. The audience is anyone in society who cares that there is a victim. Hennessy works in the field of domestic violence on a national, director's level and offers profound insights.
One of my major takeaways is that domestic-violence work is different from counseling: professionals in the field of DV understand that the only goal is to move the victim into safety. The victim cannot be effectively counseled until she is safe, and she will not and cannot be safe until she is apart from her abuser. Only after she is apart can she begin to remove the abuser's voice from her head; therefore, nothing she says while she is under the control of the abuser can be fully trusted. She will minimize her own experience, take responsibility for things she should not, and slip into the abuser's narrative. Professionals in the field of DV do not value confidentiality. They do make the victim the client: not both parties. One reason for this is that the abuser is talented and can easily sway the professional (and anyone else with whom he comes in contact). Abuse is never acceptable, and anyone who assigns any responsibility to the victim, for any reason, colludes with the abuser.
For example, while a counselor might encourage communication between the parties (i.e., hold the victim partially responsible for the problems in the relationship), professionals in the field of DV understand that the victim should not speak to her abuser. Any information she gives him is likely to be used against her. He will twist her words, share her secrets, and--if she tells him what hurts her--he will purposefully engage in that behavior all the more.
Hennessy explains that abuse is deliberate and can be stopped immediately, but the abuser is not likely to stop unless the consequences for abusing are greater than the rewards. This is rarely the case, and we come to understand that--even when it is--the abuser stops abusing for his own sake and not his victim's. The entitled, controlling character of the abuser is such that he begins his work from Day 1. He chooses his victim for her kindness, and it is under the guise of love that he begins his work. Over time, he breaks her down. Specifically, he brainwashes her. He is also likely to rape, injure, and/or kill her.
A final, interesting takeaway is that Hennessy believes that sexual control is at the heart of all intimate abuse.