This week’s other featured books, “Preserve,” by Susan Kolodny and “Kiss Kiss” by Paul Beckman, can be found by scrolling down below this post, or by clicking the authors name on our Authors page.
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THE BOOK: The Killing Closet
PUBLISHED IN: 2023
THE AUTHOR: V.L. Brunskill (www.vlbrunskill.com)
THE PUBLISHER: Southern Yellow Pine Publishing Tallahassee, FL 32305 www.syppublishing.com
SUMMARY: This heartbreaking memoir tells of the life of V.L. Brunskill as she grows up on Long Island, New York. Vicki-Lynn and her brother Peter are adopted as infants into a family defined by violence. V.L. defends her mother and brother for a decade before escaping to a domestic abuse shelter. How far would you go to save your family?
The Killing Closet examines V.L.’s adoptive father Jo Selbach’s hidden gender identity and how after Jo’s death, the truth allows V.L. to begin a journey of understanding. Stunning in its unadorned intensity, The Killing Closet is a moving portrait of a girl who plans a murder in hopes of escape and in her failure, finds love for a woman she never knew existed.
The Killing Closet is a raw and emotional portrait of one woman’s journey to overcome the trauma of her past and find hope in the face of adversity. This gripping memoir will leave you inspired and empowered.
THE BACK STORY: At first, I wrote The Killing Closet out of anger. I wanted the woman who had inherited my father’s estate and accused me of abandonment to know what my family had suffered. I recorded my most horrible childhood memories. Then, as bereavement and healing began, the book became an examination of domestic abuse and the many ways we humans become trapped. Whether trapped by violence or the inability to live one’s truth, I hope my book allows at least one person to unlock their killing closet and step into the light.
This is my second book with an adoption theme. My novel Waving Backwards explores an adoptee’s search for her biological family in Savannah, Georgia. Quite a few people have asked me how The Killing Closet is different. First of all, it is a memoir. So it is all true. I believe The Killing Closet offers the adoption yin, while my novel Waving Backwards was the yang. In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang represent a universal harmony. There is good and bad in all things. The way I understand it, the yin is negative, darker, and feminine, and the yang represents positivity. I touch on the topics of adoption, separation, reunion, and family dysfunction in both books. However, The Killing Closet is a story of surviving unthinkable abuse, escape, and the damage done when one lives a false life.
WHY THIS TITLE?: When I was eleven years old, I sat in the hall closet with my father’s shotgun, readying myself to kill him when he came home from work. So there is that aspect of the title, but it also represents the fact that my father lived a lifetime hiding a gender secret.
WHY WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO READ IT? I grappled with the idea of publishing The Killing Closet. First, because I had hidden from my childhood abuse for so long. I was also concerned whether people would want to read a candid retelling of the abuse. However, as the multimillion sales of A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer in 1995 proved, there is strength in the telling. Whether people read to heal from their own demons or to understand the dynamics of suffering and survival, there is a place in the world for books that reveal the frailty of the human
condition.
I hope that a new awareness of the signs of domestic abuse, and a willingness to report is born in readers. I also hope that readers will feel able to share their own secret stories after reading this book. Last and most importantly, I want those in abusive situations to be able to find freedom.
REVIEW COMMENTS:
- “A heartbreaking, powerful read. Survival comes with its price. Brunskill turns you inside out, but the journey is well worth any discomfort you experience. The Killing Closet is beautifully written and resonated with me long after I finished.” — Ann Hite award-winning author of Roll The Stone Away: A Family’s Legacy of Racism and Abuse .
- “I’m astounded by the bravery it took to tell this story. The Killing Closet is not for the faint of heart. But heart is the key word. This memoir is terrifying to read as Brunskill lays out still-fresh brutality, but at the same time, balances the darkness with a clear and defined sense of redemption. To find understanding, and even hope, inside a landscape filled with monsters is no easy feat. But it’s worth the read to understand the heart of a survivor. This book will make you want to hold the hand of someone you love and never let go.” — Brian Panowich, International Best-Selling Author of Bull Mountain and Nothing But The Bones
- “The Killing Closet is at once a hard-hitting exploration of a childhood lost to violence and a keen-edged narrative about the dual nature of loving and hating. What hurts us, V.L. Brunskill writes, is embedded in the cerebrum, burned into the very nerve endings of ourselves. How we embrace that hurt is at the heart of who we become and how we find the courage to take charge of our lives.” — Karen Salyer McElmurray, author of Voice Lessons, Wanting Radiance, Surrendered Child
- “A soul searing story of abuse that pits survival versus untethered evil.” — Jackie K Cooper, author of The Wisdom of Winter, Memory’s Mist, Journey of a Gentle Southern Man
- “V.L. Brunskill’s new book, The Killing Closet, is without a doubt one of the more riveting (and oft chilling) accounts I’ve ever read. Time after time, I found myself asking how Brunskill and her family lived through what she describes, and, at the same time, admiring her strength. At others, I found myself in tears, or angered on her behalf, and horrified by her and her family’s experiences. Finally, came my admiration for her nuanced handling of what, ultimately, is delicate subject matter indeed, and I’m sure that, like me, none of her readers will be able to put this breath-taking book down before it’s end.” — Rosemary Daniell, award-winning author of Fatal Flowers: On Sin, Sex and Suicide in the Deep South and nine other books of poetry and prose
AUTHOR PROFILE: V.L. Brunskill is the author of the award-winning novel Waving Backwards (2015). Her stories and personal essays have appeared in numerous publications and blogs. A nineties rock goddess, V.L. ditched journalism class after landing her first interview with the late great punk icon Joey Ramone. As a national music journalist, V.L.’s work appeared in Metronome Magazine, CREEM, and The Boston Globe. Born in Brooklyn, New York, on Christmas Eve and adopted after seven months, V.L. was reborn in 1991 when she was reunited with her biological parents. She moved south to be closer to both. V.L. lives in Savannah, Georgia, with her bass player husband and a precocious Pyrenees named Ozzy.
AUTHOR COMMENTS: The gender topic is a difficult and controversial topic for many, but this book also explores my adoptive secret gender. When it was revealed to me, it was yet another dysfunction to sweep under the proverbial rug. I ran away from my father’s truth because I wanted a strong, loving, masculine dad. I could not accept Jo’s truth because I was still healing from the mayhem of having her as my father. This book paints a picture of a tortured life and how her suffering became ours. So, I think another takeaway is the importance of embracing one’s truth. It is going to be painful, and it might break lifelong connections, but only by living one’s truth can we be whole. We need to stop telling people who they are. They already know
LOCAL OUTLETS: https://www.syppublishing.com/the-killing-closet/
WHERE ELSE TO BUY IT: Amazon, Barnes & Noble.
The sales links are below:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/book/1144254082
https://www.syppublishing.com/the-killing-closet/
CONTACT THE AUTHOR: email: vbrunskill@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vlbrunskill
X (Formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/RockMemoir
Blog: https://adoptionfind.wordpress.com/
Author site- https://www.vlbrunskill.com/
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