A review by radagast_the_brown
Know My Name by Chanel Miller

challenging dark hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

I am late to reading this book, but I intentionally took my time getting to it: everything I knew about Chanel throughout the trial being publicized let me know that she was like a jie jie 姐姐 that I had yet to meet. Her family was from here in the Bay Area, but she studied English at UCSB. Our overlapping year at school was the year Elliot Rodger killed students in Isla Vista, the night my roommates and I huddled in the dark living room around one of our laptops, watching his chilling manifesto video before it was taken down. She liked experimenting with art, she has a soft spot for senior dogs, she found printmaking during one of her darkest times.

I do not cry because I could have been in her place; I cry because so many before and after her have been in similar places and simply because she is a person. But deeper still, our parallel lines weaving their way forward (mine just 3 years behind) are so close to one another and finally, I think I was ready to read my hypothetical oldest sister's story. I can't wait to see what beautiful art and unflinching honesty she brings to her future work.
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