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A heart-wrenching memoir exposing a child’s ultimate betrayal, and the courage, strength, and hope it takes to heal. This brave debut offers honest insight into a survivor’s journey.
PRAISE FOR
"Andrea Leeb’s powerful memoir Such a Pretty Picture explicates the long-term consequences of and process of recovery from abuse."—Foreword Clarion Reviews
“Resonant narrative of trauma, growth, and forgiveness.”—Booklife Review
“Such A Pretty Picture is a fierce act of reclamation, written with haunting grace. Brave, honest, and exquisitely written, this memoir is a necessary addition to the canon of survival literature. Leeb's story will stay with readers long after the final page.” —Portland Book Review (5 stars)
“It’s a story about survival—of trauma, betrayal, and, surprisingly, moments of love—rendered with a clarity that’s both poetic and emotionally searing.” —Seattle Book Review (5 stars)
“This book is brutal. It’s heavy. But it’s honest in a way few memoirs are. It doesn’t try to make pain pretty. It doesn’t ask for pity. Andrea Leeb writes like someone who has lived through hell and made it her mission to tell the truth.”—Literary Titan (5 Stars)
“With unwavering honesty and lyrical restraint, Leeb constructs a narrative that is as emotionally devastating as it is artistically accomplished. This memoir is not just a chronicle of survival—it is a study in how language, silence, and memory coalesce into a haunting portrait of a life shaped by secrets.” —San Francisco Book Review (4.5 stars)
“With crystalline prose and a measured, evocative tone, Leeb guides the reader through her childhood in a home that, from the outside, appeared perfect—but behind closed doors, hid deep dysfunction.” —San Diego Book Review (5 stars)
"It takes power to tell this story. It takes bravery and strength and a machete—a way to chop through the tangled vines of trauma to forge a path ahead. Such a Pretty Picture is a powerful story that will break your heart and, hopefully, put it back together again." —Independent Book Review
“Such A Pretty Picture was raw and aching, but impossible to look away from. This isn’t a book I’d recommend lightly—it’s emotionally intense and triggering. But it’s also one of the most honest, powerful memoirs I’ve ever read. Andrea Leeb isn’t asking for pity. She’s telling her story to shed light, to speak the truth, and to make someone else feel less alone. And that’s precisely why it matters.” —Los Angeles Book Review (5 stars)
“In this courageous survival story of harrowing sexual abuse, relentless gaslighting and temporary silencing, a father’s dark psychology and a mother’s literal and figurative blindness meet one small girl’s unshakeable will to endure. If you know a survivor of childhood predation, (and trust me, you do) this book, so full of candor, and bravery and language's redemptive lyric flight, will be a talisman for healing.” —Pam Houston, author of Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country
“Startling emotional rawness. Unflinching truth-telling. Andrea Leeb’s devastating examination of a childhood shattered by parental sexual and emotional abuse will be seared into your mind from the very first page. ... Wrenching, unforgettable, and, ultimately, illuminating, Such a Pretty Picture carried my heart away.” —Samantha Dunn, Pulitzer Prize Nominated Journalist and author of Not by Accident: Reconstructing a Careless Life
“Andrea Leeb’s debut memoir recounts in stunning detail the devastating story of how a daughter’s secret and a family’s betrayal carved the way forward for a resilient young woman determined to survive. This work is full of beautifully rendered thought-provoking prose that ultimately uplifts as it inspires.” —Elle Johnson, author of The Officer's Daughter and Executive Producer of Bosch
"Andrea Leeb’s powerful memoir, Such a Pretty Picture, is an immensely compelling, tender, honest, and ultimately courageous reckoning with abuse, betrayal, and the false promises of new starts. She writes with great immediacy and clarity about the long, often seemingly-impossible, and always mysterious journey into a lifetime of unfolding healing. This is also an important story about the bravery and persistence it takes to forge a life out of the bravery of love and the miracle of forgiveness. Many who have survived incest as well as other forms of pervasive abuse will find solace, wisdom, and hope in this beautifully-written memoir.” —Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Kansas Poet Laureate Emeritus and author of The Magic Eye: A Memoir of Saving a Life and Place in the Age of Anxiety
“Leeb has written my favorite kind of memoir, frantically alive, unflinching, breaking my heart in the best ways. I felt her with me on every page, and by chapter three, we were best friends.” —Joshua Mohr, author of Model Citizen
ABOUT
Andrea is four and a half the first time her father, David, gives her a bath.
Although she is young, she knows there is something strange about the way he is touching her.
When her mother, Marlene, walks in to check on them, she howls and crumples to the floor—and when she opens her eyes, she is blind.
Marlene’s hysterical blindness lasts for weeks, but her willful blindness lasts decades.
The abuse continues, and Andrea spends a childhood living with a secret she can’t tell and a shame she is too afraid to name.
Despite it, she survives. She builds a life and tells herself she is fine.
But at age thirty-three, an unwanted grope on a New York City subway triggers her past.
Suddenly unable to remember how to forget, Andrea is forced to confront her past—and finally begin to heal.
This brave debut offers honest insight into a survivor’s journey.
Readers will feel Andrea’s pain, her fear, and her shame—yet they will also feel her hope. And like Andrea, they will come to understand an important truth: though healing is complicated, it is possible to find joy and even grace in the wake of the most profound betrayals.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Andrea Leeb is a writer and advocate living in Venice Beach, California. Her work has been published in numerous literary journals, and she was recently a non-fiction finalist in the Tucson Festival of Books literary awards program.
She has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars, a JD from the Cardozo School of Law, and a BSN from Georgetown University.
Previously, Andrea worked as both an attorney and as a registered nurse. She currently dedicates her time volunteering at the UCLA Rape Treatment Center and Stuart House (where she is a member of the Advisory Board of Directors), advocating for survivors of sexual assault, mentoring young women from post-conflict and climate-challenged countries, and writing.
Such a Pretty Picture, A Memoir is Andrea’s debut book.
Website: AndreaLeebAuthor.com
Threads: @AndreaLisaLeeb
Instagram: @AndreaLisaLeeb
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