'Know My Name' by Chanel Miller is a powerful memoir that chronicles her journey as a sexual assault survivor, her experience with the legal system, and her fight for justice. Through raw and sincere storytelling, Miller sheds light on the emotional distress and pain she endured, while also highlighting the flaws within society, the court system, and the treatment of victims of sexual assault. Her writing style is described as luminous, crystalline, and deeply impactful, providing readers with a gripping narrative that exposes the harsh realities of assault and the challenges faced by survivors.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include discussions of sexual assault, trauma, emotional distress, mental health struggles, and systemic failures in the judicial process.
From The Publisher:
Universally acclaimed, rapturously reviewed, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography, and an instant New York Times bestseller, Chanel Miller's breathtaking memoir "gives readers the privilege of knowing her not just as Emily Doe, but as Chanel Miller the writer, the artist, the survivor, the fighter." (The Wrap).
"I opened Know My Name with the intention to bear witness to the story of a survivor. Instead, I found myself falling into the hands of one of the great writers and thinkers of our time. Chanel Miller is a philosopher, a cultural critic, a deep observer, a writer's writer, a true artist. I could not put this phenomenal book down." -Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior and Untamed
"Know My Name is a gut-punch, and in the end, somehow, also blessedly hopeful." -Washington Post
She was known to the world as Emily Doe when she stunned millions with a letter. Brock Turner had been sentenced to just six months in county jail after he was found sexually assaulting her on Stanford's campus. Her victim impact statement was posted on BuzzFeed, where it instantly went viral-viewed by eleven million people within four days, it was translated globally and read on the floor of Congress; it inspired changes in California law and the recall of the judge in the case. Thousands wrote to say that she had given them the courage to share their own experiences of assault for the first time.
Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. It was the perfect case, in many ways-there were eyewitnesses, Turner ran away, physical evidence was immediately secured. But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life.
Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. It also introduces readers to an extraordinary writer, one whose words have already changed our world. Entwining pain, resilience, and humor, this memoir will stand as a modern classic.
Chosen as a BEST BOOK OF 2019 by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, TIME, Elle, Glamour, Parade, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, BookRiot
Ratings (46)
Incredible (18) | |
Loved It (18) | |
Liked It (6) | |
It Was OK (4) |
Reader Stats (146):
Read It (46) | |
Currently Reading (2) | |
Want To Read (78) | |
Did Not Finish (2) | |
Not Interested (18) |
4 comment(s)
“Each time a survivor resurfaced, people were quick to say what does she want, why did it take her so long, why now, why not then, why not faster. But damage does not stick to deadlines. If she emerges, why don't we ask her how it was possible she lived with that hurt for so long, ask who taught her to never uncover it.”
It’s one thing to read/hear the news about sexual assaults, but it’s completely devastating on another level to read first hand what the victim had to go through (and go through it she did! for many years!) voluntarily in order to fight the necessary fight against class, the legal system, assumptions, all of it. Astoundingly powerful author.
The book/writing itself felt a bit long with some aspects seemingly repeated multiple times but still is a recommended book to read.
"Denying darkness does not bring anyone closer to the light."
If you remember the victim statement published by Buzzfeed for the Stanford rape case, this is the victim de-identified and finally telling her entire story. Know her name. Chanel Miller. She is a powerful writer.
This is an important book, which is why I rated it 5 stars. In this book, Chanel Miller outlines in more detail her harrowing experience with the criminal "justice" system, which required her and her family members and friends to basically put their lives completely on hold for two years, in order to participate in the trial. If this was this horrific and life-altering for a college-educated, high SES, professional family, adult woman, please try to imagine what it is like for child victims.
"The place to be remembered is not where I was assaulted, but where he fell, where I was saved, where two men declared stop, no more, not here, not now, not ever." - I hope that everyone who reads this realizes that this is all of our responsibility to declare stop, no more, not here, not now, not ever again.
En este libro hay pocas estadisticas y ninguna entrevista, esto no es un trabajo periodistico sino que es la reproduccion de los hechos y sus consecuencias por una mujer que fue agredida sexualmente.
Lo que mas me ha llamado la atencion es la capacidad de expresar su estado emocional a lo largo de todo este proceso, al igual que su capacidad de explicar su personalidad o la de otras personas.
Creo que la autora tiene talento para escribir historias y en este caso tenia una historia muy importante que contar lo que hace de esto una lectura poderosa.
~4.5
What can you read after
Know My Name?
About the Author:
Chanel Miller is a writer and artist. Her memoir, Know My Name, was a New York Times bestseller, a New York Times Book Review Notable Book, and a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Dayton Literary Peace…
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