What If I Tell?

What If I Tell?
Gina McCabe
Winding Road Books
ISBN: 978-0-9815139-0-4
Non-Fiction, Memoir
Reviewed by Vianna Renaud

In this extraordinary memoir, author Gina McCabe leads us along her courageous journey with the aim to help others prevent and treat child abuse. Over the short span of ten years, she worked her way from bartender to professional firefighter, small business owner and Vice President of a Northern Virginia based consulting firm. With so much going for her, both in personal and professional areas, she had everything that one could want. Little did she know that the truth behind her anxiety and workaholic ways would result in previously hidden childhood nightmares coming to the surface.
Through greater exploration of her life, ways of being, and negative thinking patterns with personal therapy, McCabe discovered the delayed after-effects so common among survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Through her deeper reflection, she encountered a wide range of emotions including denial, confusion, anger, depression, and finally clarity around the after-effects of childhood trauma. In discovering the link of the abuse to the impact it made on her whole life, from choices, behavior, thinking, and feelings, she finds the inner courage and voice to confront her most terrifying demons.
I found this book to be incredibly insightful into the first hand experience of someone who has suffered from childhood abuse. I applaud Ms. McCabe's amazing frankness and openness regarding her most personal experiences and thoughts. I consider this engaging yet educational book to be a resource to anyone wanting to learn more about abuse and would therefore wholeheartedly recommend it. Thank you, Ms. McCabe, for sharing your incredible story with the wider world; your story serves as an inspiration and will not be forgotten.