No Visible Bruises

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No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder

Clear and aching, empathetic and analytical, reported out with journalistic standards of integrity while tendering the emotional awareness of a good novel, No Visible Bruises would be a pleasure to read if it weren’t for the harrowing subject matter. Snyder peers close at the underreported subject of domestic violence, which she admits would be better termed intimate partner terrorism, and shows with irrefutable clarity how pervasive this form of violence is in the United States today.

The book begins by telling the story of a particular familicide, showing how interpersonal and family dynamics, cultural stereotypes, lack of awareness and communication between various organizations and agencies, and lack of gun control all contribute to terror and tragedy. Following these same threads of systemic dysfunction throughout the book, Snyder also investigates the attempts of city and state police departments, batterer intervention programs, and domestic violence survivor advocates to close loopholes and shine light into blindspots to prevent abuse and death. The portrayal of these various actors felt even-handed without being tortured in attempting “neutrality”: it is made abundantly clear when Snyder sees the police or prison system enacting further trauma, misogyny, and racism upon the people caught up in their grasp, but she’s also unafraid to positively portray the individuals within these systems who fight for genuine change. While Snyder acknowledges multiple times throughout the book that straight ciswomen are not the only targets and victims of intimate partner terrorism, No Visible Bruises is fundamentally about how intimate partner violence manifests in straight relationships between cisgender partners.

Enlightening and disturbing, No Visible Bruises felt like a call to action even while Snyder mostly writes as a documentarist, recounting many aspects of familicide, domestic partner homicide, and domestic partner terrorism and abuse in the United States. A profoundly well-written book which will hopefully pave the way for further research, advocacy, and books on the aspects of this subject less covered in No Visible Bruises.

Subjects included in this book which some readers may be sensitive to: intimate partner terrorism/domestic violence; sexual violence; incarceration; gun violence; drug addiction; homicide; familicide.