Atkins' story of Jeff Hart is a portrait of a teenage boy living a nightmare. Jeff's life changed abruptly and permanently the day at the rest stop when a man named Ray held a knife to his throat, forced him into a van, and took him away to be his personal sex slave. On that day, the life Jeff had as a normal young boy ceased to exist. His innocence ended and his perception of self disintegrated. Atkins's book focuses on Jeff's struggle to find himself after Ray returns him to his family. The primary themes that arise during the course of the novel are the power of mental conditioning, the stigma of sexual abuse, and the corruption of the innocent.

During the course of the book, Atkins reveals some chilling insights into the nature of mental conditioning. She begins in Chapter One in...