Review: My body keeps your secrets, Lucia Osborne-Crowley.

@debbies.little.bookshelf

As well as telling her own story, Lucia draws from more than 100 interviews with diverse women and non-binary people to share intimate stories about their lives and how shame plays a part in it. Although Lucia writes about shame, trauma, and how it manifests within us - it is also a story of courage, reclamation and strength.

It should be noted that there are various trigger warnings, please check this online before pursuing this book! My takes: the accumulation of different experiences and stories paints an authentic picture of the complexity and diversity of the effects of trauma. Lucia takes care when telling other people’s stories, and the way she is so open and honest about her own is special and moving, she does this more directly in her book ‘I Choose Elena’ (definitely read!! check tw please).

I do, however, feel as though structure and form was lacking, which may very well be an editorial fault and was not an issue in her original memoir. Nevertheless, it’s a must read and is one of my favourite non-fictions. She cites a lot of sources that are special as well, such as ‘healing the shame that binds you’ by John Bradshaw.

It genuinely is a really interesting theory and topic, I do truly believe the manifestation of long held shame and trauma within the body can manifest in physical ways due to the nature of stress, but I think even more so that this book should be appreciated for what it is and taken with a pinch of salt.