Blog Archives
Speaking For Those Who Do Not Feel Safe
No Ordinary Love follows several women whose stories reveal the terror and trauma of domestic abuse. Why was this an important book for you to write?
Because it’s my story—and the story of countless other women around the world. Despite how widespread intimate partner violence is, it continues to be treated as though it’s rare or private. It’s an epidemic. As long as that remains true, more stories need to be told. I was inspired by the women who spoke up before I found the strength to do the same. Now, I’m speaking for those who may not yet feel safe enough to share their truths.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you told this moving story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
The hardest part wasn’t the writing itself—I had already survived the events. In fact, the process of writing was profoundly therapeutic. What was most difficult was transitioning from that healing space into the often retraumatizing demands of publishing—critiques, edits, legal reviews, marketing, promotion. Writing gave me back my voice, my truth, my agency. But sharing it exposed me to judgment, disbelief, and the need to prove my experiences.
What was especially painful was the fact that I had to fictionalize elements of my own life story—not to protect myself, but to protect the identity of my abuser. After being silenced for over two decades, I finally found the courage to speak out. Yet, I still had to call my memoir “fictionalized” when it’s 98% truth, with only minor changes made to shield the person who harmed me. That’s harder than I can express in 100,000 words.
What is one misconception you believe many people have regarding the aftermath of domestic abuse?
That the abuse ends when you leave. It doesn’t. What I wanted to highlight most in No Ordinary Love is the aftermath—the long shadow trauma casts, the lingering triggers, and the decades it can take to fully disentangle yourself from the psychological grip of abuse. Healing is not linear. It is life-long.
What is one thing you hope your readers take away from No Ordinary Love?
I hope it inspires honest, necessary conversations—about the subtle and insidious nature of coercive control, how it undermines autonomy, the long-term psychological impact of chronic abuse, and the intersection of trauma, mental health, and systemic failure. Most of all, I want to illuminate the barriers survivors face in their search for safety, support, and validation.
No Ordinary Love
No Ordinary Love, by BB Gabriel, is a searing memoir that threads together the lives of several women grappling with the many faces of intimate partner violence. Through a braided narrative—alternating between Gabbi, Alex, Katee, and others—the book unveils the terror, trauma, and tangled aftermath of abuse while illuminating slivers of healing and resilience. This story stomps, screams, and weeps across the pages, detailing coercion, fear, childhood confusion, and adult reckoning. Told in raw vignettes and memory-soaked prose, it is not just one survivor’s story—it’s a collective mirror for far too many.
Reading No Ordinary Love shook me. There were moments I wanted to put it down and moments I couldn’t look away. The writing, often poetic and stark, pulled me close enough to feel the fear and the fresh heartbreak. Gabriel doesn’t romanticize trauma, and that’s what makes her voice trustworthy. She doesn’t craft her pain into tidy scenes or polished resolutions. Her story spills over in waves—sometimes chaotic, sometimes controlled—and always relatable. The structure, with its shifting timelines and perspectives, felt disorienting at times, but maybe that’s the point. Trauma is disorienting. This book doesn’t offer clarity; it offers truth.
I admired the way Gabriel let silence linger in her writing. Some chapters stopped short, leaving me breathless, the same way trauma interrupts a life. And yet, she also knows when to lean in—when to take us all the way through a panic attack, a memory, a phone call no one wants to make. This book isn’t just about surviving abuse. It’s about what comes after—the guilt, the longing, the ghosts that live in your muscles. And somehow, it’s also about love. Love between sisters. Love that fights back. Love that rebuilds.
I’d recommend No Ordinary Love to anyone willing to confront the brutal honesty of what abuse looks like behind closed doors—and what it takes to speak it aloud. It’s a gut punch for survivors, advocates, and even bystanders who have wondered, “Why doesn’t she just leave?” This book is for those who stayed. For those who left. And for those who still carry the weight of it all.
Pages: 381 | ASIN : B0DRZ5Z51X
LITERARY TITAN 