Trigger Warning: this Blog post features the topic of sibling abuse.
For an excellent source on the topic of child abuse, especially child sexual abuse and safe parenting see the website: https://parentingsafechildren.com/. For more recommendations, see my Blog post of April 1, 2025, entitled April and Abuse Prevention.
I have written a more recent book than “The Overlife, A Tale of Schizophrenia.” The second book is titled “Three Kidnapped, Three Siblings, Three Furies,” which we’ll refer to as “Three Siblings.” Its central theme is sibling abuse. It is available in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook formats. You can view it by visiting the link https://amzn.to/43CRLzY. This link is an Amazon Affiliate link, and as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. The affiliate link for “The Overlife” is https://amzn.to/44Rhx5z #ad #commissionsearned.
The title of this Blog post and its relevance to sibling abuse
The book examines three families whose eldest teenage child goes missing on the same day after school. It falls within the horror and thriller genres, with the primary tension centered on the quest to recover the three kidnapped teenagers. The horror element exposes the sibling abuse within the families through compliance with a series of ransom notes. The kidnappers and authors of the ransom notes are the Three Furies from Greek mythology.
There! I’ve explained the title without revealing too much, as I don’t want to spoil the plot for those who have yet to read the book. For those who like that sort of thing, there is plenty of gore and fear in the book, but none that out does the situation of a victim of real sibling abuse.
My own experiences with sibling abuse
I have been open about my first book, “The Overlife: A Tale of Schizophrenia,” being closely based on the experiences of my mother and me with schizophrenia.
That will lead you to ask: Was I also a victim of sibling abuse? The answer is broader: I was a victim of abuse by all three members of my immediate family. Was it emotional, physical, or sexual? This whole trio influenced my relationships with the rest of my immediate family. I was closest to my mother, and I came to understand that her emotional abuse towards me as we grew older stemmed from her unmanaged schizophrenia. She was never violent with me, nor did she make any sexual advances. My father and brother did, successfully. With my father when I was very young, and my brother when I was a pre-teen. My father was violent with me, something my brother never was. Both my father and my brother inflicted emotional abuse, with by far the worst of it coming from my brother. That was sibling abuse.
So I was a victim of extreme emotional and some sexual sibling abuse from my brother. My parents did nothing about it. I was at the bottom rung of the ladder in my family of four, according to my mother and brother, and they enforced this ranking. I was on the bottom rung, my father was next, then my mother, then my brother. In my mother’s eyes, my brother could do no wrong, and she often told me I had to do anything he asked. In my little world, I had no allies. Paradoxically, despite my mother’s attitudes, I knew she loved me and was very mentally ill. That helped me absorb her emotional abuse and still have many happy days with her
Why the Three Furies?
Why did I introduce the Three Furies into my story? In Greek mythology, they punished wrongdoing, especially within families. Symbolically, our culture and even religion fall short in the book, despite one of the heroes being a Catholic priest. The more critical heroine is Isabel, someone who lives with schizophrenia and is a specialist in the Greek Myths. Consumers of mental health are not their diagnosis, so I wanted her schizophrenia, which she is managing well, not to be a factor. The message in introducing Greek mythology is that we cannot always stop a severe crime, such as sibling abuse, without thinking outside the box.
Not only are the three families with kidnapped teens held to account, but the whole village in which they live, as witnessed by phenomena closer to biblical plagues than Greek mythology.
Why Fiction?
Sibling abuse is a terrible crime and most families involved do nothing, or not enough, about it. The three families in my novel are initially clueless, but Greek mythology steps in to provide insight. We need to examine what is absent from our culture to highlight what our culture can’t successfully address.
Like with “The Overlife,” I chose fiction as my genre. It enables me to leave out my real family, in particular my brother, who has gone on to live a happy life. I don’t want to damage him, but most of all, I don’t want to punish his children and grandchildren with the knowledge of what he did to me.
My overriding request to all who are reading this Blog post is: Don’t be silent! If you think a child may be suffering from abuse by a family member, tell the police!
My websites and social media
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Amazon affiliate link for “The Overlife, A Tale Of Schizophrenia,” by Diana Dirkby: https://amzn.to/44Rhx5z and for “Three Kidnapped, Three Siblings, Three Furies,” by Diana Dirkby: https://amzn.to/43CRLzY. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.