Scan barcode
A review by pucksandpaperbacks
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
5.0
CW: sexual assault, police brutality, death, school shooting, misogyny
A must read. A powerful, raw story about the author's sexual assault and the feelings and trauma it brought her. This is a very hard story to read, so please check all of the trigger warnings before reading. I only listed the one's I could remember. This is a story that will make you angry for the right reasons. Fuck Brock Turner and fuck the justice system that keeps failing victims of sexual assault. I felt so hard for Chanel as she tried to balance her life while going through trials and her own trauma. The way this affected her and her family was brutal.
Know My Name is beautifully written. The way Chanel shares stories of her life and experiences and connects them back to the Standford case shows how talented she is as a writer. Chanel recounts all of her feelings from the time she was assaulted to the end of the trial as her mind is spinning in circles. She takes the reader through her life mapping out every location and every detail worth noting. I read Know My Name via audiobook which is narrated by Chanel Miller and you can hear her emotion really come through. What a heartbreaking but notable story. I wrote down so many quotes because Chanel's words were so lyrical. I'm so glad I read this and it's a story I will never forget.
Some of my favorite quotes:
“Why should I carry the shame for the things that were done to my body?”
“I wondered how it happened, that I was now spending more time with my rapist than with my friends”
“Victims are usually automatically accused of lying, but when a perpetrator is exposed for lying, the stigma doesn’t stick. Why is it that we’re wary of victims making false accusations but rarely consider how many men have blatantly lied about, downplayed, or manipulated others to cover their own actions?”
“I was tired of existing as an object of observation. Powerless as my narrative was written for me.”
“Is an apology valid without change?”
“The judge had given Brock something that would never be extended to me: empathy”.
“I’ve grown used to being unseen, never being fully known. It did not feel possible that I could be the protagonist”
“Victims are all around you”
“Victims are not fractions. We are whole”
“The truth holds weight”
“Assault is NOT an accident”
A must read. A powerful, raw story about the author's sexual assault and the feelings and trauma it brought her. This is a very hard story to read, so please check all of the trigger warnings before reading. I only listed the one's I could remember. This is a story that will make you angry for the right reasons. Fuck Brock Turner and fuck the justice system that keeps failing victims of sexual assault. I felt so hard for Chanel as she tried to balance her life while going through trials and her own trauma. The way this affected her and her family was brutal.
Know My Name is beautifully written. The way Chanel shares stories of her life and experiences and connects them back to the Standford case shows how talented she is as a writer. Chanel recounts all of her feelings from the time she was assaulted to the end of the trial as her mind is spinning in circles. She takes the reader through her life mapping out every location and every detail worth noting. I read Know My Name via audiobook which is narrated by Chanel Miller and you can hear her emotion really come through. What a heartbreaking but notable story. I wrote down so many quotes because Chanel's words were so lyrical. I'm so glad I read this and it's a story I will never forget.
Some of my favorite quotes:
“Why should I carry the shame for the things that were done to my body?”
“I wondered how it happened, that I was now spending more time with my rapist than with my friends”
“Victims are usually automatically accused of lying, but when a perpetrator is exposed for lying, the stigma doesn’t stick. Why is it that we’re wary of victims making false accusations but rarely consider how many men have blatantly lied about, downplayed, or manipulated others to cover their own actions?”
“I was tired of existing as an object of observation. Powerless as my narrative was written for me.”
“Is an apology valid without change?”
“The judge had given Brock something that would never be extended to me: empathy”.
“I’ve grown used to being unseen, never being fully known. It did not feel possible that I could be the protagonist”
“Victims are all around you”
“Victims are not fractions. We are whole”
“The truth holds weight”
“Assault is NOT an accident”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Police brutality, and Mass/school shootings