The Unbreakable Child

De: Kim Michele Richardson

Narrado por: Dara Brown

The Unbreakable Child, a story about forgiving the unforgivable, is a riveting journey inside the secretive underbelly of the St. Thomas / St. Vincent Orphan Asylum in rural Kentucky. It is the first book in the United States to confront the institutionalized physical and emotional abuse suffered by countless orphans at the hands of Catholic clergy over these last decades. It also documents the historic United States lawsuit and first-ever settlement paid by Roman Catholic nuns in the United States as recompense for decades of brutal institutional abuse of the author, her sisters and 42 other children.

©2012 Kim Michele Richardson (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

A must read

This isn't an easy book to listen to. the author 's pain is so hard to hear. How could anyone condone such cruel actions. How could anyone claim to be a Christian and treat children in such a way. May they burn in Hell.

so sad

the narrator was good. story was good,but so sad. can not imagine those poor girls mistreatment.

Well written true story

The author did a great job of keep ing the reader engaged in this true life account of daily abuse by Catholic Clergy at an orphanage in Kentucky, USA. incredibly tragic story.

wow

I can't understand how you could send your own children to ANY religious school. with ur past as proof religion is, always has been and will always be fake

life is usually hard but

This book is hard to think about. You think what happened to those Nuns to make them so mean to the children. orphans, may be the world should change this name. Find a loving name that would bring hope to them in the eyes of all. In this case " What's God got to do with this when it comes from the hand of humans.

AMAZING

Great book!!! Narrator did a very good job. I had to buy head phones so i could listen to it at work

Sad and True

Anyone who considers this story to be a gross exaggeration is one or more of many things including naive, arrogant, privileged lacking empathy, or has "head in the sand" mentality. My husband lived the horror of the orphanages in the late 1950's and early 1960's. I have to clap my hands over my ears when he mentions the abuse he survived, it's that terrible. It's every bit as bad as hearing about Viet Nam. One Kindle review stated that there was "regulation" that would have made this level of abuse impossible. No. There was very little regulation then. Society still had a lot of "children seen not heard" mentality.,
Since children are egocentric by nature, they do NOT tell on their caregivers. And...this was the era when many orphans were being sold.
All that being said, the book told the story in a very unbalanced way. The accounts of abuse became repetitive, and there was little else to the story for long stretches. This telling was, no doubt, cathartic for the author, but mind numbing for the reader. Narration tended to get faux dramatic, like bad acting or "chewing the scenery". It's a relief that some of the victims were sort of compensated, and abusers, though deceased, were exposed. But. The entire situation left me feeling helpless and depressed.
I am a retired social worker, and I know that our foster care system and CPS are sadly understaffed despite the presence of well meaning--and underpaid-- workers and foster parents. Still, there are horror stories, true stories, circulating,happening today. I hope books like this one inspire good people to take a closer look into how we really treat children in our society. It's too easy to believe someone else is doing a good job regulating a system that is ran on a frightfully low budget.

Catholic Church should admit that they are cons

These victims are doubly harmed; first by the people who physically, sexually, and emotionally abused them, and secondly by the Catholic Church’s successful cover of the abusive priests and nuns. I understand that this was a story about the truth of one victim, and I don’t challenge her experience. I am just so angry that organized religion gets away with the destruction of individuals, civil rights, cultures, governments, and basically anything they touch. Religion is one of the roots of all evils.

The Unbreakable Child

Extremely disturbing but a story that needed to be told so that healing and forgiveness could have a chance. This made me so mad, I found myself needing to find forgiveness for them...

Solid Read/listen

Overall I really enjoyed this book. I didn’t feel like there are a couple loose ends that were not explored such as the Visions that the little girl & her sister had while in the orphanage. Not sure why The author would have alluded to their psychic abilities without actually delving into it.
I also wish we got to experience the main character finally ending up in a forever family. The author even describe a friend from the time period, but again we didn’t get to find out more.