Published by Berkley Publishing Group Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
Format: Audiobook
Inspired by True Events, Take My Hand, is a beautifully written book about the devastating practice of forced sterilization. Reproductive rights are a hot topic, and to learn that this was/is occurring in the United States is heartbreaking and staggering.
“…in the 1960s and 1970s, new federal programs like Medicaid also started funding nonconsensual sterilizations. More than 100,000 Black, Latino and Indigenous women were affected.” – taken from the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan (https://ihpi.umich.edu)
Montgomery, Alabama 1973
Civil Townsend is a young nurse who wants to make a difference. She works at a family planning clinic funded by the government. She is hoping to champion women’s sexual health and hopes to help women make their own choices and have a voice. She and other nurses are giving Depo-Provera shots to their female patients. When she sets out, she has no idea that those she will be treating are young – very young and not all have reached puberty. When she enters a home to give the shots, she is shocked that the young women she is schedule to see are in fact an eleven-year-old and a thirteen-year-old. She does her job but walks away with questions and concerns.
When she learns more, Civil is disturbed and worried. She also can’t get this family out of her mind. She does everything she can think of to help them. Then one day, she learns heartbreaking news.
This was such a moving and thought-provoking book. I was heartbroken and shocked while reading this. The injustice and lies told were staggering. This book touches on reproductive rights, sterilization, civil rights, injustice, and history to name a few. I was blown away by Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s writing. Her vivid descriptions had feeling if I was right there in the story as a silent observer.
I love books that not only educate and move me but are thought provoking as well. This book had me feeling several emotions while reading it. This was a powerful and hard to put down read.
Highly recommend.