Know My Name by Chantel Miller

This is yet another version of what rape does to those who it is perpetrated on, and how our culture works very hard to excuse the men who are the perpetrators. The read this for a Goodreads challenge, and once again it is a book I would have been unlikely to pick up if not for that. Chanel Miller she writes about her life, including her now highly publicized sexual assault in January 2015 and the events that unfolded after that. The memoir focuses on the day of the assault as well as the court case, People vs. Turner. Turner was convicted of three charges of felony sexual assault. He was sentenced to six months in jail followed by three years of probation. However, he was released after serving half of his sentence for good behavior. Miller’s victim statement was widely published across the world as is a power piece of standalone writing. Miller was known as Emily Doe and her memoir shows her side of the event and how her life was completely transformed by that night. This is a powerful book. I had followed the court case and read the statement but this memoir shows what Miller went through. From being a young adult who worked at a startup to a complete and drastic transformation after the assault, the book does not leave out any detail. We see how Miller pieces together the assault, her despair and anger at the court proceedings, her activism, her day-to-day challenges and victories, her relationships, her mistakes and victories, and the inside view of the legal system. She is very angry at having been made a vicitm--in the eyes of the public, but also in reality, that the person who did that is never going to pay an appropriate price for that damage, and also how she is trying to come to terms with that.