There is no way to talk about incest without feeling that you are lying. This is because incest lives in the realm of unreality and everything in the realm of unreality cannot be thought or said or named. When you speak of things that happen in the realm of unreality it will always feel like a lie and be treated like a lie. You are breaking the fundamental rule. You are not allowed to talk about what goes on in the realm of unreality because it isn’t real. These essays break the spell of unreality, pulling the unspeakable things from their wrapping in silence and bursting them across the page. These essays define incest as a whole family dynamic, not as a discrete dynamic between perpetrator and victim. These essays understand incest beyond sexual assault, and shine light on the many ways incest is enacted outside of physical sexual assault. These essays reveal incest as a pattern that repeats until someone faces it and transforms it. Exploding secrecy, silence, shame, and taboo, these essays tell the truth about incest.