Review of “The Invisible Soul” by George Beasley

Score: 94/100 (9.4 out of 10)

The Invisible Soul is a heart-wrenching, powerful, and inspiring memoir by George Beasley!

The Invisible Soul tells the incredible true story of a foster child put up for adoption by his own mother in the late 60s. He experienced daily trauma, abuse, torture, starvation, and neglect at the hands of his stepfather, John, and in the foster care system. The foster care system was (and, to an extent, remains) rife with issues, some of which are highlighted in books like The Power of Being Seen by Roger Saillant, Swerve by G.L.Franklyn, Fostering by Carmen Maria Navarro, When I Was Her Daughter by Leslie Ferguson, and this book (The Invisible Soul) by George Beasley.

Beasley lived in fear, terror, anxiety, and self-loathing throughout his young life (and beyond), feeling unwanted, unloved, undeserving, and unworthy... until he found God.

After decades of fierce internal, physical, and spiritual battles, Beasley was able to emerge triumphantly to share both his inspiring story and God's grace with the world.

One of the key themes of this book is the sense of being “invisible” or having an “invisible soul.” This could have multiple meanings and interpretations, and it's very possible that all of these interpretations may be true, to an extent. One interpretation is that, due to growing up so abused and neglected, the author had gained a sense that they were invisible—forgotten and perhaps even subhuman—some thing to be beaten and discarded rather than someone. Another interpretation, which is probably also true, is that the invisible soul alludes to the feeling of suffering in silence or having a conflict that goes repressed and unacknowledged.

The author uses numerous examples of suffering in silence and feeling invisible. Of course, he talks about how he suffered in silence and felt invisible for decades; however, he also talks about how others in his life also must have experienced this. A key example the author used was that of his late love, Elaine, who committed suicide after lingering problems drove her to that tragic act.

Beasley details a lot of interesting stories in this book including his budding passion for water skiing, which became both an evangelistic endeavor and a distraction, and his explorations of different religious institutions including Catholicism and Mormonism, even being baptized by the LDS Church. However, simply experiencing and encountering religion and religious people didn't fill the hole in his heart. One of the defining moments of the book is when Beasley happened upon Billy Graham evangelizing on TV.

Billy Graham said things that resonated with Beasley including “It's never too late” and “Jesus can save anyone.” Anyone? That would mean that Beasley was someone. That would mean that, despite all the bad things that happened in the past, he still had hope in salvation and redemption. He had worth, value, and humanity—things that he thought he'd never have. This was an epiphany moment!

We noticed two things about this book right away:

1. The formatting is rough, lacking indentations between paragraphs.
2. However, the writing is beautiful and exceptional

Here are some of our favorite passages:

"It was a crisp winter day in January... I remember the leaves on the ground from all the big oak trees around the graveyard. They were dead and as I walked they crumbled under my feet."

"I was the one with a face, but no expression, the one with fingers, but no fingerprints and the one with a name but no identity, an address, but no home."

“What I do know is that his pain was great and invisible. It was ultimately his invisible soul that destroyed his life."

"I could no longer hear the screams but knew they were still there. I could no longer feel the pain of the beatings, but my memories held them close to my eyes."

"I was so full of anger, depression, despair, isolation, loneliness, insecurity, self-doubt, lashing out with words of anger, hypersensitivity, and sadness. You name it and I had it."

“Through mastering my emotions over the many years I had locked this invisible soul and the
attributes of my pain deep in my soul. I wouldn’t let God heal me until I looked deep enough to see the lock on this jailed cell was rusty and no key was in sight. Where was the key?”

“At each victory there was a great defeat, through each defeat there was a great victory. God was conquering my greatest fears and allowing me to see myself everyday in the mirror of reality. He was showing me this invisible soul that had taken over my life and was trying hard to destroy me from the inside out.”

We also noticed that the author tends to be very conversational, even treating readers like a conscripted audience. He will ask readers things like “Do you know someone like me?”

This is really a book that seeks to not only enlighten but also uplift. It's a book that seems intended to reach out to people who may be going through similar things, battling with their invisible soul.

Check it out on Amazon!