“When I got an advance copy of The Road Through Wonderland, I thought I already knew the story. I picked it up casually, and then I could not put it down. I was up till 3 a.m. reading it. The power of Dawn Schiller’s writing is that within a few pages, you are so drawn into her harrowing, roller-coaster life with her fractured family and then with porn star John Holmes, that you almost become her while reading it. There is not much separation between writer and reader. Schiller draws an unforgettable portrait of a lost, drug-addled corner of late 1970s Los Angeles and what it was like to be a lonely girl targeted by a predator in that world. The most mesmerizing memoir since Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle, this whole book is one long, chilling money shot.”
“Dawn Schiller’s chilling account of her youth as the underage mistress of legendary porn star John Holmes is infused with the goodness and humanity that ultimately delivered her from her abusive ordeals. A classic story of an innocent young woman’s descent and self-redemption, The Road Through Wonderland is gritty and starkly honest; it is at once a horror tale and a story of triumph.”
“Dawn Schiller’s harrowing account, The Road Through Wonderland, is a must read for everyone but especially professionals trained to identify and respond to horrible abuses such as those Dawn endured during her years with John Holmes and others around him. As I read, I wondered what we as a community can do to allow kids like Dawn to reach out for help rather than face death at the hands of their abusers on a daily basis. Unfortunately, in Dawn’s case, by the time the abuse came to the attention of the police, she was already eighteen. Though very incapable of caring for herself, she was legally seen as an adult. And though visibly battered by Holmes, she was returned to his ‘care’ by police. I am thankful that our response to intimate partner violence and the exploitation of children and especially our ‘throwaway teens’ has improved over the last thirty years. However, we have a lot more work to do before people understand how predators like Holmes target vulnerable children and that these troubled children are worth saving.”
“Courageous. Not only will Schiller’s haunting story stay with you, but her beautifully descriptive writing will as well. This book is for anyone who has ever wondered why and how adults—or, for that matter, society—could turn their back on abused children. Schiller’s painful insights help us begin to understand how these horrible things might happen. A haunting story in beautiful form…. Dawn Schiller manages to write so beautifully about something so shatteringly repulsive. Her picturesque descriptions [demonstrate] her ability to somehow connect with the beauty of the natural world while being neglected, exploited, and abused by the human world. The thing to take away from The Road Through Wonderland is not that it is a bizarre or extreme story, but that it is a girl’s true story and gives us a rare and haunting look into what surviving takes. This important book illustrates the complexity of the victimization of children. For too many youth, victimization is not a single event but a process or even a state of being.”
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Copyright
Published 2010 by Medallion Press, Inc.
The MEDALLION PRESS LOGO is a registered trademark of Medallion Press, Inc.
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment from this “stripped book.”
Copyright © 2010 by Dawn Schiller
Cover design by Adam Mock
Edited by Helen A Rosburg and Emily Steele
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.
Typeset in Adobe Garamond Pro
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 978-160542083-7
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First Edition