Startling Beauty: My Journey from Rape to Restoration
Heather Gemmen
Kingsway Books, 2004

Many of us have been through the soul-destroying ordeal of rape and many of us have struggled with the issue of abortion but thankfully for most not at the same time, this was not the case with Heather Gemmen.

‘Startling Beauty’ amazed me.  I was awe struck by Heather’s strength fuelled by her faith, in this harrowing situation.

Raped in her own home with her emotions nagging her with that familiar refrain ‘If only I’d …”, looking inward and blaming herself for something that clearly wasn’t her fault.

What amazed me further was the response of her loving husband ‘what a man!’ Even though her actions could be perceived as selfish at times, he demonstrated that true manly strength is being able to show and discuss your emotions and reveal a more tender nature in supporting others.

This honest and very open account can help unlock and thus cause us to deal with issues with which we identify in Heather's testimony.

Not only does Heather pull you into her world through a vivid account of what happened in the natural through beautiful and sometimes poetic pros, we are allowed to peer into her spiritual life as she details her thought process and emotions.

“I was suddenly jealous of the innocent faith I had lost.  It wasn’t that I disagreed with the words I had written, it was that it didn’t sound so easy anymore.”

‘Startling Beauty’ begs the question ‘What would I do?’ at every twist and turn and encourages the reader to dig deep asking pertinent, soul-searching questions. The book comes with a study guide designed to help you delve deeper and find the answers to some of these questions.

The gentle, easy to read, poetic style had me, reading while walking, bumping into various objects. It is a real page-turner, I wanted to get to the end but did not want the book to finish.