Remnants and Reflections (The Journey to Me) Kindle Edition

From the author of The Incurable Longing comes Remnants and Reflections, a book about the complexities that follow the growing pains of acknowledgement and healing from abuse and neglect. It’s one thing to understand and name what’s happened to you; it’s another to live in the wake of those revelations with awareness, a dependent, and a determination to break family cycles. Since her last novel, Averry has come to understand she is autistic, which adds a whole new layer of understanding to the works in The Incurable Longing, and her self-disposition. Understanding the dynamics of masking truly sheds a new light on her entire lived experience and encouragement to fawn.This book is very similar in that the reader can expect complete transparency and vulnerability from Averry. It is different in that the level of symbolism is narrowed down to small passages sprinkled throughout the book. The rest of the book is far more literal and direct, which may be helpful for those that have a hard time with figurative subject matter. While her first book focuses on the breakdown of different emotions; how to identify and permit all that you feel, and symbolic reenactments meant to showcase the depth and array of emotion, Remnants and Reflections is a deeper look into Averry’s core memories and connections she makes to her functionality today. She shares specific familial experiences, ways her autism was present that she was unaware of, how parenting a neurodivergent child as someone who’s autistic is extremely challenging, the grief of having a late diagnosis that was missed by countless therapists, and what it was like to have a highly sexual and traumatized mother affected by alcoholism. She depicts the experience of navigating all of these intersectionalities while under the immense pressure of conformity and survival.She examines the relationship between autism and sexuality, setting boundaries, relationship styles, the messy in between of friends with benefits, self-discovery, and acceptance towards those less emotionally mature or present; growing in awareness and perception, self-permission, and being okay with embracing her values in a society very oppositional and uncomfortable with that.While sharing and simultaneously treating herself with grace in a neurotypical-catered world, she hopes you can make your own connections and are able to take space and hold yourself along the way. Read more