Know My Name

Know My Name

Chanel Miller

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

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.


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    i fully believe this memoir should be required reading

    Chanel Miller has such a lovely command of language, and she crafts together words and metaphors in a way that draws you in. Chanel excavates her every feeling and emotion in the aftermath of her assault, and we walk through the process with her step by step. she makes it clear all the ways in which our criminal justice system and every institution around her failed to protect her. throughout, she weaves in vignettes from her life, from moments spent with her grandparents to early memories from school. this is a reclamation of her name, of her identity, of her being; of all the parts that make her whole, not just the ones that forced her into the national spotlight and to seek refuge in anonymity

    i cried. i hope she writes and creates more. her instagram is full of wonderful little story graphics and they make my heart full

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