Heartbreaking, informative, and eye-opening first person account of how sexual abuse happens (and is covered up) ... and more specifically, how VERY costly and hard it is to be believed if you tell the truth about this. This book changed how I try to listen to people when they tell me things: if someone discloses sexual abuse to me, my reaction matters DEEPLY. They tell us so we'll believe them. So we'll do something. Often, that act of telling is a HUGE first step, and if we respond with incredulity or passivity, we could be the cog that keeps the wheels of justice turning.

Rachael Denhollander was just a kid going to a doctor for a gymnastics injury.

On her first visit, in street clothes in the middle of the day, she was assaulted by Dr. Larry Nasser, a renowned doctor for the USA Gymnastics national team and a physician at Michigan State University.

“Don’t blame the survivor for not fighting back. They wish so much more than you that they could have.”

None of us know what we would do until we're there ourselves. And Rachael explains what happened to her without us having to go there ourselves, thankfully.

“How do you explain to someone who has never been that vulnerable that even though I wasn’t ‘held down,’ I was still trapped? Even though I wasn’t ‘physically overpowered,’ I was completely powerless?

“There weren’t just two responses to danger —fight or flight —as everyone casually said. There were three. Fight, flight, or freeze. I know what freezing in fear is now. It’s when you’re so confused and ashamed and horrified and scared that you just . . . shut down, because reality is incomprehensible.

“Why didn’t you cry out? Why? Because I trusted. I was a child. He was a doctor. He knows best. He had cared for me. He knew me. There had to be a reason. I must be reading too much into it.”

Rachael also reminds us that we need to drop the narrative that if you’re abused, you did something to deserve it. No. If you’re abused, the blame falls on the abuser, not the abused.

“You are not crazy. I wanted the survivors to know. This. Is. Not. Your. Fault.”

Rachael was among the first women to come forward about being sexually abused by Larry Nassar. She recounts her story and her journey to trial in her gripping book, What Is a Girl Worth?: My Story of Breaking the Silence and Exposing the Truth about Larry Nassar and USA Gymnastics. If you haven’t read it yet, I encourage you to. It’s a difficult book to read, but it’s an important one.

Rachael is wise, articulate, and authentic. She is an attorney, advocate, educator, wife, and mom. She stays on track with the storyline and she shares her strong Christian faith along the way.

“I want you to understand why I made this choice, knowing full well what it was going to cost to get here and with very little hope of ever succeeding. I did it because it —was —right. No matter the cost, it was right. “

She moves us to think. To feel. To act.

She asks the judge at Nassar’s trial before his sentence is determined, how much is a little girl worth? Everything.

“Good and right do exist. Truth does exist.”

My thanks to Tyndale House Publishers and Net Galley for the review copy of this book.

This was a hard book to read. A hard but very important book, one I will never forget. Rachel Denhollander has given courage to others by her example of speaking up and not giving up. Her honesty will hopefully assure this will never happen again. I wholeheartedly recommend it!
I was given this book by NetGalley, but the opinions are entirely my own.

While this book isn't easy to read, everyone should read it. Most people will be familiar with Rachel Denhollander's name as one of the most prominent women who testified against Larry Nassar. Her book sheds light not only on her own experience - but on how faith has helped her through, the importance of advocacy, and the exposure of rape culture so present in our world. Her words of "what is a little girl worth?" are so needed in today's culture and she is a beautiful, strong voice in our world's landscape of sexual brokenness and victim shaming. Rachel Denhollander is a role model for women everywhere and this book is a must read.

I cried for them, and with every tear that fell, I wondered, who is going to find these little girls? Who is going to tell them how much they are worth? How valuable they are, how deserving of justice and protection? Who is going to tell these little girls that what was done to them matters? That they are seen and valued? That they are not alone and they are not unprotected? ...that they are not to blame.

Rachael's account of the Larry Nassar and USA Gymnastics is compelling and heart breaking. It asks some troubling questions such as how can this happen and why didn't these girls come forward? Rachael gives you an inside look in the gymnastics world and also her own upbringing. Her faith is very important and plays a key role in her fight against the abuse and misuse of trust. Because of her faith, she values justice and the affects of what this abuse can do if left unchallenged.

Her desire to be in gymnastics and her will to be the best led her to Larry when she suffered pain in her back. She and her mom were told of Larry and the wonderful results he had. Rachael was delighted that Larry would agree to see her and help her with her pain. Larry was not the monster you would think but a calculating man that preyed on young girls and their moms. He was caring, asked questions, and was very much on your side. Much of the abuse was in front of Rachael's mother without her knowledge. Reading this account, I learned my rights when being examined by a doctor. You are told by your doctor when you will be touched in a private area every single time. So when these girls were "touched" in these areas, they were not told but were left with "what just happened" or as Rachael experienced "frozen". Larry is a doctor that the USA Gymnastics hires. The problem is with me. The implications are devastating. Most of these girls that were abused, suffered mentally and other relationships became difficult because of what Nassar got away with and many times with others blessing. No One believed them and their own self-worth suffered.

When a local newspaper asked the public if they had experienced any abuse relating to USA Gymnastics, Rachael many years later saw the opportunity to be believed and to challenge the practices of Nassar. Her journey to this point became her calling. She became an advocate for the sexually abused. Learning how victims can become victims, how an abuser works thru churches, agencies, and hides behind a sexualized culture where there becomes innocent victims. If you believe a Playboy laying around in your house with your young kids is not harmful, you are deceived.

Rachael with the help of the press and the prosecuting attorney were able to search Nassar's house when a woman came forwarded reporting the abuse there. It was there that the authorities were able to discover child porn at home. This lead to what most of us saw on TV. Where victim after victim faced their abuser. What is amazing and sad is that Nassar did not see his guilt. Thru it all, Rachael experienced and lived the gospel in extraordinary way that she shared the gospel with Nassar. It is by faith and repentance that God will free Nassar. Many may not understand that but if the Gospel is only for the victim, we do not have a good understanding of the gospel of Christ. And the gospel is for the guilty as well as for the victim. Yes God is a God of justice but justice is served when repentance lived. A change of heart and that is what Rachael was appealing to Nassar in her well known trending video.

I learned much from Rachael's account and the fight she and her family stood for. A family that clung to the promises of the gospel and that every girl has worth. Well done Rachael!

A Special Thank you to Tyndale House Publishers and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

"Little girls don't stay little forever. They grow into strong women that return to destroy your world." - quote from What is a Girl Worth

This book is a strong memoir from the woman who successfully pressed charges against the USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor Larry Nassar. (Note that I said successfully because many other women had come before her to press charges and they were ultimately dismissed.)

Rachael went on to be an attorney, and without her legal background and knowledge, I wonder if her case would have also been dismissed. Her tenacity and legal research helped to build the case against Dr. Nassar, which ultimately led to more athletes coming forward.

Rachael was a young gymnast with a hip injury and although she was not on the Olympics team, she was a competitive gymnast in her hometown and when she became injured, it was recommended that she seek treatment with the Gymnastics Doctor of the Stars, Dr. Larry Nassar. It took her many years to come forward to press charges and to speak about her experiences...mostly because he was so notable and highly revered in the industry. As a result of her activism, more than 250 women came forward as survivor of Nassar's abuse. She was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People and received the Inspiration of the Year award from Sports Illustrated, and was a joint recipient of ESPN's Arthur Ashe Courage award. This is her story. I highly recommend it!

On August 4th 2016, Rachael Denhollander pressed "send" on an email that would change her life, and the lives of many others, forever.
In response to a news article which accused USA Gymnastics of systematically burying reports of sexual misconduct against their coaches, she contacted the IndyStar explaining that she had experienced sexual abuse not by a coach, but by the USAG team doctor Larry Nassar.
This was only the beginning of an arduous and costly battle to see justice done, and to see other girls protected from experiencing what Rachael and so many other gymnasts experienced while being treated by Nassar.
"What Is A Girl Worth?" is Rachael Denhollander's memoir of this journey.
It is powerful, well-written, and extremely compelling. The subject matter means that it is not an easy read, but there is much to learn from her experiences and it is a story that needs to be shared.
While I had heard part of Rachael Denhollander's story and seen a transcript of the victim impact statement she gave at Larry Nassar's sentencing hearing, I had no idea just how hard the fight had been, and how much effort it had taken for Rachael's story, and those of the other gymnasts, to be heard and believed.
I was left in awe at her courage and determination, at how she fought for justice at great personal cost and with no guarantee of success.
This book is a call not to turn a blind eye or to live in denial, but to fight for our children and their safety, and to listen to and believe survivors of abuse and support them in their quest for justice.
A tough read, but one that I'd highly recommend!

I was very interested in this topic after hearing the author's story on the podcast Believed, but this book didn't add much. There were a few too many chapters in the beginning about her childhood which were not really relevant, and the Christian sentiments got a little heavy-handed at times. I got about halfway through and figured that was all I needed to read. I think the Christian overtones and focus on extraneous aspects of the author's life will turn off many readers, which is a shame.