"The devil will get you!"
In a typical middle-class family, things aren't always what they seem...
By all outward appearances, Holly's 70s childhood seems idyllic. But the walls of her Baltimore rowhome hold dark family secrets that make her life a living hell. And secrets love to breed in the dark...
Where the uncomfortable and loathsome become not only acceptable, but expected. And set the stage for years of systemic abuse at the hands of the most unlikely of abusers.
From forced participation in a nudist colony to unwitting indoctrination into a purity cult, Holly's swing-of-the-pendulum life leads to confusion, people-pleasing, and losing herself to the expectations of other people.
Until, at her grandmother's funeral, she is confronted with the whispered question, overheard from a life-long family friend: "Where did Holly go?"
Only by exposing dark secrets and questioning everything she believes is Holly able to confront her abusers, step into her grace and power, and learn to trust herself again.
Along the way, she uncovers universal truths about the lies we believe, the labels we wear, and the light that's inside us when we have the courage to find it.
Secondhand Worth is a beautiful memoir of redemption and grace that doesn't shy away from the hard moments. Instead, it embraces them with grit, humor, and brutal honesty. It is a relatable look at how trauma unravels every sense of self-worth and what it really takes to weave a life of love, faith, and confidence.