Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Este é o Meu Nome

Wow. I am still trying to process and digest this book. Harrowing is one word to describe this book. Another would be inspiring. Chanel very courageously breaks down her story of being the survivor of the Stanford Sexual Assault Case. She allows us the privilege to walk through her story with her and experience the tumultuous journey of her lowest of lows and her finding herself again. I wanted to climb through the pages of this book and give Chanel the biggest hug. The writing is IMPECCABLE! The vividness, the tangibility and the smoothness of her writing adds to this already emotion packed read.

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marissasa's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

After crying many times throughout the 12 days it took me to read this, I sobbed through the ending of the memoir with Chanel's victim impact statement that I had read once before and similarly sobbed to back when it was viral on Buzzfeed in 2016. This is one of if not the most important book I have ever read and there were countless moments throughout that I was left breathless and with chills down my back. This story is so important, Chanel's writing is so important, and the hard realities of the way victims, especially victims of sexual assault, are treated in the justice system are so important to recognize and call out. This book should be mandatory reading for everyone who thinks they know anything about legal justice in America, and honestly for anyone who cares about victims of sexual assault. So much of what is shown in the media is tainted by bias and by politics, and Chanel does not shy away from detailing in all the gruesome ways that her rapist, the law, the media, and society have uprooted her life and left her to pick up the pieces. Despite all this she is somehow able to find the strength and resilience within her to uplift millions of other victims who have read her statement and felt seen, felt heard, felt themselves having a voice again in a world that wouldn't listen. She and her work will live in my heart and mind for the rest of my time on earth as I navigate being a woman whose boundaries were once crossed. Thank you, Chanel.

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shanflan's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

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lauragillespie_'s review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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bookish_wanderer's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

5.0

First of all, watch out for trigger warnings. This can be a tough read.

I'm actually not sure if I can to gather my thoughts well enough do this book justice. Let's try.

You might have heard of Chanel in the past but did not know her name. You knew her as the victim in a high-profile sexual assault case in the US, a victim of a "promising swimmer". Now Chanel wants to reclaim her identity and be known for the survivor she is, and oh so much more.

She's such a gifted writer, and the way she conveys her emotions, the anguish, the pain, and everything she and her family went through at the time is brilliantly done. It's raw, intimate and honest. It'll make you scream, cry and sometimes even laugh, as she also shares some lovely memories.

With this memoir we have the opportunity to see what can happen to survivors who try to get justice. It reminds us why so many assaults go unreported, under a system that favours attackers rather than protect their victims, and almost accepts that these acts are just an inevitable fact of life (especially on campus). Where if you're a promising jock or famous, rich white and male, you're often held at a different standard.

What does it say about our society, when people are angrier at a woman for "putting herself in that position" (BIG quotes here), rather than at the attacker for committing the crime? Where alcohol is a reason for leniency for the accused, but more of reason to blame the victim?
Where a promising career in sports is valued more than the sanctity of someone's body and dignity?

Seeing her strength while she fought through it all to come out where she is today is a message of hope, for all survivors out there.

I really recommend this memoir. It is powerful, and it is so important. There is still so much to change.

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sarahshapiro19's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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taylorjayne's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative

5.0

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