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Family Abuse & Violence
Magic Castle by Carole Smith β€” book cover

Magic Castle

by Carole Smith
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Overview

When Carole Smith and her husband decided to take on a foster child that no one else would have, they knew ten-year-old Alex would be difficult. But nothing had prepared them for the unruly, self-destructive boy who stormed into their lives. Alone with Alex during the day, Carole was baffled by his infantile tantrums and violent, self-hating behaviors. Exasperated, she tried relating to him as the two-year-old he appeared to be, and finally, a door to Alex's mind began to open.

With the help of psychiatrist Dr. Steven Kingsbury, Alex's tormented mind revealed a host of personalities, each born in a horrifying episode of Alex's past -- each carrying a memory too powerful for his conscious mind to handle. As the personalities came forth in the safety of Alex's inner, secret castle, they unleashed stories of abandonment, brain-washing, and sexual abuse by those Alex trusted the most. In the spellbinding tradition of Sybil and When the Rabbit Howls, here is a fascinating true story of the human mind; of innocence shattered by inhuman cruelty; and ultimately of love's power to transform fragments into wholeness -- tragedy into triumph.

About the Author, Carole Smith

Carole Smith is a former schoolteacher who lives with her family in Massachusetts.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In a shocking drama of satanism, ritual sacrifice and child sexual abuse at its most sadistic, Smith (a pseudonym) seems to spare readers no horrific detail, actual or embellished. She presents herself with saintly heroism as she recreates her experiences with "Alex," the 10-year-old special-needs foster child she and her husband, Sam, took into their home in an unidentified Massachusetts town in 1984. Smith relates events through early 1992 when Alex finally integrates his "alter" selves and is able to articulate the sexual abuse inflicted on him during his family's satanic rituals. During his calm periods, the hyperactive boy became a karate expert, a trophy-winning horseback rider and a Little Leaguer. Institutionalized on occasion because of his violent behavior, Alex was helped in therapy by hypnosis to recall abuses graphically related here. Rather than an inspiring look at a salvaged life, in Smith's overheated telling, the memoir strains credibility. Illustrated. (Feb.)

Book Details

Published
January 1, 1999
Publisher
Saint Martin's Press
Pages
336
Format
Paperbound
ISBN
9780312968205

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