Review: Liberation is Here

Dalese Black reviews "Liberation is Here" by Nikole Lim.

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Liberation is Here: Women Uncovering Hope in a Broken World

By Nikole Lim (InterVarsity Press)

Liberation is Here is a narrative of two worlds meeting. One world is made of girls raped by men in cultures that give more power to the powerful, take the innocence of girls, and leave these girls with no recourse. This world is told through the girls’ stories.

While these girls live in Kenya and Zambia, girls and women all over the world are in the same situations. The language, dress and culture are different, yet girls and women are treated the same all over the world.

The other world is Lim’s personal one. She tells some familial stories of trauma—none of which involve sexual trauma. Her need for justice and liberation are portrayed through her work with the girls in Kenya and Zambia. Lim’s desire to help them led her to start Freely in Hope.

Lim discovered that to have justice, it takes much more than money and education. She also discovered liberation is found in unexpected places through unexpected people.

Lim’s desire for justice for ‘her’ girls led to a change in herself. Her understanding of justice, liberation and what it means to believe in God was challenged, undone, strengthened and transformed.

Those with privilege in the United States and elsewhere can see through Liberation is Here what life is like for many people around the world.

The personal stories of Lim and the girls leave a longing for true justice and healing, while acknowledging the inability to rid evil from this world in which we live. There is an underlying current in Lim’s writing that we cannot fix the world, but we can work to make it a better place where every person is safe, loved and valued.

Caution is strongly advised for anyone who has experienced sexual trauma.

Dalese Black
Plano, Texas


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