About The Book

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He Beat Past My Skin is an unforgettable story that highlights issues, which afflict women and children around the world. Laden with intrigue, suspense, and drama, its powerful tales surrounding violence and abuse are sure to capture your attention. It’s a story that evokes the deepest fears of many women and children and delivers a message that silence kills.

                                            

Excerpt:  After that night, my father’s voice frightened me, and his touch pricked my skin, like tiny needles. When he smiled at me, his ominous eyes easily revealed his contempt. He became a stranger to me, but so did my mother. Her status as the heroine in my life’s storybook quickly changed to a victim. Her faint voice faded into the background, and her feather-like touch barely caressed my skin. When she smiled at me her sad eyes easily revealed her anxiety. Fear and misery seeped from her pores, like sweat, and I pitied her.

“I wrote He Beat Past My Skin because domestic abuse is still one of the best kept secrets in many homes across America. It batters the body, and conquers the mind and soul. The deafening screams echo the sound of fear, silenced only by the sound of defeat. The deep wounds penetrate beyond the skin’s surface, and the overwhelming pain antagonizes one’s spirit for the rest of their lives. It devastates families and communities and weakens the essence of our cultures. We are the only ones who can stop the continuation of this covert operation.”

Be A Friend

Excerpt from He Beat Past My Skin, Redemption of a Broken Spirit: “My mother poured her first glass of brandy the day the police hauled my father away in handcuffs. By the end of the trial, she was an alcoholic. Every day, she drank bottles of cheap liquor until she passed out. The grief consumed her life, and she used the alcohol to soothe the pain. Shortly after we moved into the apartment in Southeast D.C., she discovered drugs. Then, within weeks, the crack cocaine overshadowed the alcohol and obsessed her life. Of course, her addiction left me without a father or a mother, and ultimately sentenced me to life without parole in the ghetto.”

This is an excerpt from the life of Ernestine Johnson. As I wrote this paragraph, I felt the fear and despair of a woman with a broken heart. A woman with no idea how to deal with the prospect of losing the man she loves and the life she knows. She sought comfort in a bottle of alcohol and drugs to soothe the grief that consumed her soul. I sympathized with Ernestine because as a young child, she had to survive the best way she knew how, but I also sympathized with her mother because she was lost in grief’s darkness. Ultimately, Ernestine became a desperate little girl struggling to save them both, and that struggle created a wounded and broken woman.

What we as women have to understand is that sometimes we have to ask for help. Over the years, those wounds may develop scabs, but the scars will continue to remind us that the pain is still real. That pain forces us to seek relief from whatever source is available. We seek that something to soothe that incessant ache of hopelessness, which allows us to feel less than. We seek that someone, that anyone to provide a sense of love and acceptance, which we believe will make us whole. It is easy to fall into an endless trap of abuse when we do not believe that we deserve better, and sometimes the pain of his fist against your face allows you to forget the persistent ache in your soul.

The one thing that I hope this book teaches us is that we are all human. We all experience life’s struggles and pains, and regardless of the color of our skin, or our economic and cultural disparity, we all bleed the same. What this book has taught me is that not everyone knows how to heal his or her wounds. They believe that when life happens, all you can do is live it the best way you know how, and they struggle through life attempting to conceal or bury the sorrow as forgotten memories in the back of their minds. However, that pain is relentless, and it will find a way to thrive. It becomes a leech embedded in the depths of your soul draining your senses of peace and happiness and leaving you to wallow in despair, depression, anger, and resentment until desperation forces you to confront the truth.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. Reach out to someone who may be trapped in an endless cycle of violence. Listen to their subtle pleas for help. Sometimes our judgment speaks louder than words, and we become deaf to our sister’s prayer. Be a friend, and remember that not everyone knows how to change his or her lemons into lemonade.

Third Review

Read below the review by noted Cyrus A. Webb, President of Conversations Book Club and host of Conversations LIVE! Radio.

From the title, I knew that author Jessica Green had created a literary masterpiece that would not only tell a great story but cause the reader to think seriously about an issue that has robbed the lives of so many. The author takes us into the journey of several women through the main character Dr. Angela Morrison. She is being used in her official capacity to help others understand and confront their own demons, however, she realizes that there are somethings in her own life that remain unresolved.

As she becomes that listening ear to those who need it a journey that she had long tried to put off becomes necessary in her own life. The end result is not just her being entangled in the tragedies of those she is trying to help but her becoming in need as well.

In the end what Jessica Green has done with HE BEAT PAST MY SKIN is allow us to see that when it comes to the issue of abuse, no matter what form it takes, there are those outside of the actual person being abused that is affected. There is also a serious dialogue that should take place when it comes to how we treat those who believe to be victims of abuse or who seek help. We have to let them know that the abuse doesn't define them, and they are survivors.

Kudos to Jessica Green for giving the world what I believe is one of the best books I have read this year. I will be talking about HE BEAT PAST MY SKIN for some time to come.

Additional reviews posted on the website.