When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: Ch. 12 Finding a Family

Red left Le Ly with her new Americanized appearance and ways to find a new job at a smaller, tamer club.  Le Ly soon meets Jim. Jim, on the first day of meeting Le Ly, offers her a place to stay where she wouldn't have to work at a "crap house" because he wants a woman to live with. Jim quickly becomes violent to where one day, Jim, during an argument over a lost house key, "got out the automatic pistol he aways carried for protection and fired a couple of shots into the ceiling" (301). One night, Jim came home drunk from a drinking party and Jim began suffocating Le Ly. After both incidents, Jim is deported back to the United States for not fitting in the stress of the army life in Vietnam.

A book I read last summer, Dreamland, by Sarah Dessen. Caitlin O'Koren begins a relationship with drug-dealer Rogerson Biscoe. The relationship quickly becomes abusive and controlling. Caitlin begins smoking pot and is beaten by Rogerson for not telling him where she is at all times. In the end, Rogerson is caught beating Caitlin and taken to jail. Caitlin is sent to a recovery and rehabilitation center where she is getting treated for drug addiction and counseling for abuse.