Know My Name

What a book. If the name is unfamiliar, Chanel Miller is the woman who was assaulted by Brock Turner behind a dumpster a few years ago- an assault his father disregarded in court as “20 minutes of action”, something I had actively repressed until it came up in this book. The memoir deals with Chanel's life before and, mostly, after this event and how the assault and the media attention affected her.

The sad reality is that many of the people who need to read this book the most- that is, the people who villainized her or defended Turner- will never read it. Regardless, it's an absolutely haunting, infuriating, and enlightening read. I think many women who have experienced similiar will find this book validating and/or inspiring and Chanel states that's the main reason she wrote it. I also think many men could gain some insight from this book about how women are treated regarding sexual assault. The way that Chanel was treated during the trial made my blood boil.

The way she describes events or the way she was feeling was so powerful. If I wasn't listening on audio, I would have stopped many times to write down some poignant quote or another. My only negative for this book was the length/pacing. The stuff dealing directly with her case was mostly paced well, but she started delving into things like Trump's presidency and police violence against black men. While a tangible point could be made with this, it felt out of place and more like someone just shouting “And another thing!!” at the end of their argument. Still a book I would strongly recommend to anybody.