Crazy Love Book 3

Crazy Love Book 3 Review
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Crazy Love Book 3 Review
In Book 3 of “Crazy Love,” Leslie describes her ongoing feelings towards her abuser, Connor. Despite the suffering both emotionally and physically Leslie has suffered under Connor, she still feels a strong attraction towards him. At times, Connor almost kills her through physical abuse, but Leslie still feels she misses him. I was surprised that Leslie would express such feelings towards her abuser after all the trouble she has undergone at his hands. Leslie demonstrates how Connor still looks “amazingly handsome, alive with anger” (Steiner, 2009 pg. 146). Leslie’s thoughts regarding her abuser Connor surprised me and made me angry and sometimes scared for Leslie’s life. In the first place, I thought Leslie would not accept returning to Connor after all the emotional and physical abuse the husband inflicted on her. I would expect that Leslie would decide to stay away from an abuser to prevent more damage on her part, which never happened. However, I still had feelings that Connor had got hold of Leslie and could, at some point, manipulate her back into the abusive relationship.
The experience of Leslie attending family therapy with Connor was difficult for me to comprehend. I expected that in the family therapy, Connor would eventually own to his mistakes and ask for forgiveness from Leslie. Instead, Connor took the opportunity to blame his upbringing, particularly the beating he used to get from his father as a child. While this is understandable, I was passed off when Connor gave Leslie a list of demands. Connor said, “If things are going to work out, Leslie needs to be more careful in the evenings not to bring up my ‘hot button’ subjects” (Steiner, 2009 pg. 176). Connor then gave a list of things that Leslie should avoid. It was clear that Connor avoided taking responsibility for her actions and instead blamed Leslie for the problems they were experiencing in the marriage. I was not too fond of the little progress the therapy made towards addressing the abuse issue.
I think society should dedicate time to understanding and rehabilitating abusers. Most of the abusers are likely to have experienced trauma in their childhood, which then causes them to become abusive towards their partners and children. For instance, Connor had an abusive father and suffered as a child. Because of the deep-seated issues that abusers may have because of their childhood, society should understand ...