1NAVYWOMAN

Author's Summary

This is one Navy woman's journey through a miserable childhood to emerge victorious over such odds. I turned out well because I still have a strong faith and love for God and what little family I have left.

MWSA Review

Former Navy woman Denise Boulet claims on her dedication page that she wrote this book for people who have suffered physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. Yet under her “Author’s Note,” she says, “I wrote this book for me, to tell my story. I needed to do this to help with my healing, to give hope to others, and to expose the cruelty of my childhood and the hypocrisy of foster care. If you do not like it, get over it. It is not for you, it is for me.”

So, where does this leave the reader? Well, if you keep reading, you will learn that she was born at Charity Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana, into a cruel dysfunctional family where certain members thought nothing of stubbing out cigarettes on babies. She writes that she was “raised by wolves; not the four legged kind, the two-legged kind” and that she “did not realize what an evil, insane family” she had been born into until recently.

It’s no surprise then that Ms. Boulet has battled depression most of her life, given the horrendous conditions she and a younger brother were forced to endure. Many of those years, she and her brother were farmed out to various family members and eventually ended up in several foster homes.“The filthy dogs who were supposedly our biological family gave us away into the filthy wolves of foster care where our hearts and souls were torn away and our lives destroyed in those snake pits!” She suffered sexual and mental abuse while in foster care. She says the story has been in her head for over thirty years, and it’s only after she retired that she put her thoughts and feelings on paper.

The strongest section of the book is in the opening pages where the author details her childhood before she enlisted in the Navy. She believes that if she hadn’t joined the Navy, she’s not sure if she’d even be alive to tell her story. The book, a mere 75 pages, might appeal to others who, like the author, were not lucky enough to be born into a loving family where children are nurtured and not punished for simply being born.

Reviewed by: Kathleen M. Rodgers, MWSA Reviewer (2011)