This was painful to read. You find out mid-way through the book that Julie's mother seemed to have suffered abuse as a child too, but at that point it was too late for me to feel anything but disgust for her and her behavior. This is to say nothing of her father, abusive, mentally unstable and unable to see her mother's emasculating insults as what they truly were: goading to become a part of assaulting and traumatizing their daughter. How do these people find each other?
It seems unreal that this could happen for so long (and to a variety of other children too, with lesser degrees of severity) and not be noticed by medical professionals or school administrators or anyone! Her memory is really (and terribly) quite amazing.
On a side note, the SHEN therapy experience Julie has as part of her recovery reminds me of
She's Come Undone, going into a comforting almost womb-like state.