The Steven Stayner story was always one of those that stuck with me, perhaps because of the colossal unfairness of it. If there's one person in this world that deserved to live a nice long happy life it was him, but life is bullshit, and he got to die at 24.

I'm glad that we grew out of protecting survivors of sexual abuse by letting the aggressor walk free, I GUESS. There's still so much wrong about the way these victims are treated, but I had no idea how bad it was in the 80s until I sat down to read this. Steven never even got to deal with anything that happened to him for good. He didn't shut up about it and he was brave. He taught the world a lot, but he ended up a victim of our learning curve.

I wish I had some brilliant insight to share, but honestly, not really. I always knew bad things happened to good people, this is just the brutal extent of it. I hope we can learn from our mistakes, I guess. And I hope if people don't, if they still feel like being bullheaded about it, I hope someone makes them read this really graphic and horrifying book, and that they are forced to remember Steven Stayner. And then grow the fuck up.