Smiling on the Outside

Peck’s memoir about her recovery from a sexual assault mixes a self-empowerment narrative with advice for other victims, but despite its good intentions many readers will find few takeaways. In sincere, tell-all vignettes, Peck describes how being raped while in high school impacted the rest of her life: she entered an abusive first marriage and her second marriage was to a sex addict whom she reluctantly enabled. She also describes discovering her interests in nude recreation, polyamory, and voyeurism. Peck encourages her readers to reject silence about their experiences, starting with writing about them on the blank pages included in the book and joining her Me, Too movement where they can unburden their “secret shame.” Her openness and belief in helping others is admirable, though her Me, Too movement will hold little appeal to readers who, unlike the author, are sexually conservative or are less emotionally and psychologically prepared for public revelations about traumatic incidents from their past. (BookLife)