This is one of these reviews that’s incredibly hard to write because I feel like my words can hardly do this book justice. I read “Know my name” by Chanel Miller as a buddy read with Tina from @tinas_library and we originally planned to take it slow and read the book over the course of one and a half months because of its heavy subject matter. Instead we ended up reading it within one or two weeks because we simply couldn’t put it down!
For those of you who for some reason haven’t heard of the book yet: “Know my name” is a memoir written by Chanel Miller who initially became famous under the name Emily Doe as the victim of the Stanford rape case. In this book she reclaims her name and tells her story of how she survived the sexual assault, the impact it had on her life and the tiring and exhausting legal battle she had to go through.
Her book is not only an intimate and personal account of what going through this does with a person and how it changes their life but also one that exposes the faults of the justice system. And it is one that addresses structural problems such as rape culture, victim blaming, himpathy and misogyny without ever being too theoretical.
The memoir is incredibly well written in a simple, yet beautiful style that just draw you in. I will definitely read whatever Chanel Miller will write in the future. It’s a book full of humanity, resilience and personality. It shows all the ugliness and all the beauty of life and survival.
As I said before I couldn’t put “Know my name” down. Miller’s beautiful and poetic writing draws you right in and keeps you under its spell until the last page, the last sentence, the last word. The book made me cry, it made me angry but most of all it made me feel grateful. Grateful that I Miller wrote this memoir and grateful that I got to read it. It was a privilege for me to spend these 357 pages with her.
I’ll close this review by suggesting that whoever is interested in the book also reads the one written by Tina because I don’t think mine could do “Know my name” justice. I’d honestly recommend this book to everyone who might be interested in this book and even more to the ones who aren’t because they’re the ones who really should read it. And most of all, I recommend it to those who might need it. You are not alone.
If you liked this review, you can find more reviews on my Instagram or here on the blog.
TW: Sexualized violence.