Author: Kat Hibbard

ISBN: 978-1-933538-82-2

Physical and emotional traumas inhibit the normal psychological development of many victims. However, some people emerge more confident and beautiful after the hardest of physical and emotional crises; the latter include individuals like Kat Hibbard, author of the recent autobiographical book Bullets: Growing Up in the Crossfire (Bridgeway Books, Texas, 2007). In her short but brilliant book, she relives the traumatic experiences of growing up as an abused child who does not lose her path to a normal life despite every chance of being led astray by the troubled waters of her existence.

Born of and living with an abusive father, Kat tells the story of her life from an accidental birth to the helpless web of threads that she fumbled at in the hope of seeing a better day. Drugs, sexual harassment and abuse, and juvenile delinquency, all occupied the center of her life’s stage while she kept looking for the innocent joys of trust and friendship that her situation denied her as a child. After years of coping with fear and stress, Kat gradually came out of the horrible environment of her family house and devoted time to share her story with other people, aiming at preventing future traumas to children.

Bullets is a poignant account of the author’s life story, though she attains a prodigious way of narrating the painful memories in a way that absorbs much of the emotional shock of those unbearable events. At the same time, it is a book that performs an autopsy of drug abuse and delinquency to unmask the factors responsible for unhealthy behavior among children and teens of our modern societies. The inference is so cogent and heart winning: the bad ways will not be there for a child if he/she is loved and cared for in a proper way.

Most insightful, perhaps, is Kat’s experience of having ‘no personality’ when it came to her choice of things; abuse and trauma can kill the real person in you and let your remains wandering around for putting on some face. Still, those remains have the power to grow into a more beautiful and more mature form of life and the author demonstrates this fact by her own example. As she ultimately got over the fears of her earlier life, pursued education, brought up two kids of her own very lovingly and caringly; she grew once again along with her kids and is now an inspirational figure for all people, especially women, whose lives have been touched by abuse and trauma. Her book Bullets is a gift to every individual who cares about love, trust, and peace in life.

The above review was contributed by: Ernest Dempsey the pen name of Karim Khan. A founding member of the World Audience Inc. (New York), Dempsey is the author of three books: The Biting Age, Islands of Illusion, and The Blue Fairy and Other Stories. He writes articles, professional book reviews, essays, and poetry. He is also an interviewer. Currently Dempsey is working on his fourth book. 

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