Resolve, and what I've learned
When Resolve was published in 2023, I thought I knew what I was placing into the world.
I knew it was a book about sibling sexual abuse.
I knew it was written with care, restraint and responsibility.
I knew I had taken great pains not to sensationalise, share others’ stories that weren’t mine to share, nor over-explain or turn lived experience into spectacle.
What I didn’t yet know was how Resolve would move once it left my hands.
Over the years since publishing, readers have reflected something back to me that I could not see while I was writing. Resolve is not only read. It is encountered. I’ve heard how:
it is left on a coffee table and picked up by someone who has never spoken about their childhood;
was carried into a family home and became the first doorway to a compassionate multi-generational conversation that had waited decades; or
has been present, sometimes unopened, yet still does its work, supporting a difficult conversation to be had. One person shared that seeing the orange cover in their peripheral vision, gave them courage to go where they hadn’t before.
I’ve also come to understand that Resolve doesn’t ask for attention. It sits quietly until someone is ready.
When I reread the book recently, preparing for a conversation cafe event, something else became more clear. The book is doing two things at once.
It helps parents and families recognise unseen risks, relational patterns and warning signs that can exist beneath sibling sexual harm.
And it helps survivors understand that what they lived through was real, harmful and not theirs alone to carry.
This dual purpose, with neither cancelling the other, is where the book lives. They belong together.
At the time of publication, I couldn’t yet name that dual role so cleanly. The culture wasn’t ready for it either. Even now, conversations about sibling sexual abuse remain tentative. Silence still carries more social weight than truth-telling.
And yet, Resolve continues to find its way into the right hands, one pair of hands at a time, which I had jokingly once shared was my ‘slow burn’ marketing plan.
I’m learning that this book doesn’t need to travel through urgency or promotion. It moves through proximity, trust and timing. It often arrives sideways, through recommendation, curiosity or as an offering of hope from one person to another.
As this new year begins, I’m trusting Resolve to continue doing its work. I began the day thinking about self-publishing and promotion, and found myself returning to what I already know: this is a book written into a taboo space, one many people are not yet ready to look at or name.
There is no need to push a book about sibling sexual trauma into unwilling hands. People either go looking when they are ready, or they are not ready yet.
I hold a hope that, over time, families, educators and support services may become more willing to engage with this issue, particularly as wider conversations emerge about children’s exposure to harmful material and the ways unspoken harm can be enacted within families. It is sobering that this may be one of the pathways through which the conversation opens.
For now, this book is doing what it needs to do. It is maturing. That could only happen because, one day in 2023, I placed the final full stop and chose to publish.
From here, my writing will live on Substack. The regular reflections, early journal notes and context around Resolve and sibling sexual abuse that have been shared on www.aliceperle.com.au/blog since 2023 are always there. I’ve chosen to simplify where my words go so they can move more freely alongside this and other major projects in 2026.
This space will hold reflections, context and learning that sit alongside Resolve. Writing here will not be driven by algorithms or frequency. It will be shaped by what feels ready to be brought into the daylight, named, written, chatted over with the community that has come together around Resolve, or simply marked as part of the path beyond publication.
If you’ve found Resolve already, I’m glad you’re here.
If you’re still circling, take your time. The book knows how to wait.
If you’d like to read more about the book itself and who it’s for, that lives here:
https://aliceperle.com.au/about-resolve/