Even If You're Broken: Essays on Sexual Assault and #Metoo by Katie Rose Guest Pryal; 2019. Softcover.

In this clear-eyed, incisive, and often funny book, Katie Rose Pryal introduces readers to the convergence of mental health and sexual assault. Using both personal stories and analyses of public events, Pryal explains the ways bodily boundaries are abused and the mental harm that follows.

Included are a surreal, quick-witted tale of Pryal’s report of a past sexual assault to her college’s Title IX office—after being hired there as a professor. A grim yet comical story of manipulation by a married professor while Pryal was a student that nearly cost her her degree. A Kafkaesque account of finding herself in a video installation at a major art museum after secretly being recorded by the artist.

Also included are smart analyses of high-profile events where sexual assault and mental health are front and center, including the uncovering of Larry Nassar’s abuse of gymnasts, the hearings of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and the perennial mistreatment of survivors with mental health struggles by the justice system.

Signed by author.