Writers are readers, and many readers are writers. You may have noticed that several of my blogger friends have written books, and I want to introduce you to another.
Vicki Atkinson is a licensed professional counselor (LPC) and a leadership and life coach in private practice. She writes an encouraging blog, Victoria Ponders, and recently published two, very different books, Surviving Sue and Slivers.
Following are my reviews of these books. Please, stroll through to the end of this post, because I want you to also meet a musician friend who you will find quite entertaining.
We have no idea what goes on behind closed doors. A home may appear happy, healthy, and loving, but a house often hides the truth of what happens within.
When a family is obviously dysfunctional, outsiders are quick to criticize or offer guidance without truly understanding a situation they have not experienced. Why won’t the abused partner pick up and leave? Why doesn’t the child simply ask for help? It’s difficult for those who have no experience with domestic abuse to comprehend the challenges of leaving.
Vicki Atkins takes us inside one of those homes in her book, Surviving Sue: An inspirational survivor’s story about a daughter and her life with a mother who was riddled with alcoholism, Alzheimer’s, anxiety, depression, and Munchausen’s. She opens the door and turns on all the lights. She hangs out the family’s dirty laundry for the whole world to see.
We meet Vicki’s mother, Sue, and clearly see the complex personality of a parent, who could not show Vicki love yet smothered her special need sister and medicated her for non-existent illnesses. Both daughters suffer, and life after their mother passes away results in a lifetime of recovery for the girls.
Surviving Sue is deep, intensely personal, and detailed in its events. If you are one who has lived through an abusive relationship, you will relate. If you have been fortunate enough not to, you will come to a new understanding of those who have.
Family members who can read each other’s minds, sounds and images that creep through their homes, and family leaders who repressed the stories of their legacy in hope of protecting the younger generation, run through the pages of Vicki Atkinson’s new book, Slivers.
When the spooky and terrifying reach a crescendo, its that younger generation that’s forced to face the “slivers” and determine who and what, if anything, is to be feared. They also are the ones who must correct the errors of their parents.
Vicki Atkinson’s newest title, Slivers, is one of those stories that holds you captive, unable to turn away. You’ll have a need to continue through those spine-chilling pages to learn the truth, the secrets that have been hidden for far too long.
The story weaves a web involving three friends and their parents. Just be careful not to be a fly caught in that web of lies.
Slivers is available from Eckhart Press.
*
And if you’re seeking some good music to listen to while reading, please visit my friend, Ernie’s, tunes on his blog site, Peaceful Threads. His music is under Peaceful Grooves, 103.3 DM.
Ernie writes a few different styles of music, but my favorites are the Soft Sessions. They are soulful and bluesy. Whichever tunes you choose to listen to, Ernie will have you up and dancing.
©Mary K. Doyle, 2026
Midwest Mary 
Talk to me. I’m curious about your thoughts and comments.