You Made Me This Way

Daniel Nour: Known for his feature journalism as well as his acclaimed memoir of teenage struggle, Fourteen, Shannon Molloy has turned his keen eye to a more expansive project in You Made Me This Way. Molloys firsthand account of childhood molestation, by a school friend a few years his senior, is placed like a landmine at the beginning of this story, its psychological consequences rippling through the ensuing book. As well as chronicling self-destructive drinking and workaholism, the great feat of Molloys writing is its astute rendering of shame. In addition to recounting his personal journey of healing, conveyed through conversations with his psychiatrist, Molloy has undertaken a methodical research project about the child sexual abuse crisis in Australia, interviewing survivors, lawyers and mental health experts. It is a crisis about which, Molloy writes, we ‘should all collectively feel shame and rage and demand more from the legal system’. It is the platform that he gives a broad variety of survivors, memorialising their harrowing accounts with care and precision, which gives You Made Me This Way its profound value. Not only does it foster conversation and amplify the voices of survivors, it also offers a tribute to those who lost their lives to abuse. Part memoir, part exploratory research project, Molloys second book is an urgent and genre-defying feat of storytelling. Daniel Nour is an Egyptian-Australian journalist and member of Sweatshop Literacy Movement. His work has been published in the New York Times, SBS Voices, Meanjin, Griffith Review and Eureka Street. He has been awarded a mentorship to develop a manuscript with Affirm Press. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Shannon Molloy is an award-winning journalist and author with more than fifteen years’ experience working for major media outlets spanning print, digital and publishing. He began his career at Fairfax in Brisbane as an award-winning news reporter and has since covered property, business, entertainment and human interest. He spent seven years working for News Corp as an entertainment reporter and feature writer, then as News Editor of news.com.au. He is currently the News Editor at realestate.com.au.

Shannon was the 2020 recipient of Journalist of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards. His debut book, Fourteen, a memoir about growing up gay in regional Queensland, is a critically acclaimed bestseller that was turned into a sell-out hit stage production and is now being adapted for the screen.

Shannon also contributes to various charity organisations, and founded the annual Clare Atkinson Memorial Scholarship for journalism at The University of Queensland.