Book ~ "Through the Glass" (2011) Shannon Moroney

From Goodreads ~ When Shannon Moroney married in October of 2005, she had no idea that her happy life as a newlywed was about to come crashing down around her. One month after her wedding, a police officer arrived at her door to tell her that her husband, Jason, had been arrested and charged in the brutal assault and kidnapping of two women. In the aftermath of these crimes, Shannon dealt with a heavy burden of grief, the stress and publicity of a major criminal investigation, and the painful stigma of guilt-by-association, all while attempting to understand what had made Jason turn to such violence.

In this intimate and gripping journey into prisons, courtrooms and the human heart, Shannon reveals the far-reaching impact of Jason's crimes, the agonizing choices faced by the loved ones of offenders and the implicit dangers of a correctional system and a society that prioritizes punishment over rehabilitation, and victimhood over recovery. 

In 2005, Shannon was a 30-year-old guidance counsellor and newlywed living in Peterborough, about an hour and a half northeast of Toronto.  When they had met a couple years earlier, Jason had been honest with Shannon and told her that he has spent ten years in prison for murder.  They moved forward with their relationship, eventually getting married and planning on having a family.

Jason hadn't had a happy childhood.  He was a adopted and his adoptive mother was bipolar and abusive and his adoptive father passed away when he was young.  His mother had moved in with her boyfriend when Jason was 18 and found an older woman to be his roommate.  They ended up having a relationship but he eventually killed her after a fight.

A month after her wedding, she was at a conference in Toronto and a police officer showed up to tell her that her husband, Jason Staples, had been arrested for kidnapping and raping two woman ... Jason's "blackness" had resurfaced.

This is Shannon (and Jason's) true story of dealing with the aftermath.  Throughout it all, Shannon and her family supported and forgave Jason, the person, but not what he had done.  In 2008, Jason pleaded guilty and instructed his lawyer not to contest the Crown's application for dangerous offender status. He is currently serving an indefinite sentence in a medium-security federal prison.  Shannon has gone on to remarry and have twins.

I thought this was an interesting story (I don't remember it happening).  Though I know this book was about Shannon and the fall-out of her husband being a rapist and kidnapper, I had a hard time having a lot of sympathy for her.  Yes, she was a victim because of what her husband had done but it seemed like she felt she was on the same level as Jason's victims.  Jason committed some heinous acts yet she chose to stick by him ... she visited him regularly in prison, hugged him, told him she loved him and fantasized having a life with him eventually.

She wasn't sleeping or eating ... I bet if she hadn't stayed as involved with Jason as she had, she wouldn't have been so stressed.  I didn't think it was reasonable that she was offended and hurt when friends and colleagues turned their backs on her, she was surprised when the school where she was working wouldn't let her keep her job, etc.