A review by nightwolfnym
Life After Death by Damien Echols

5.0

I find it hard to review memoirs because it makes me feel like I’m reviewing a person’s journal of their life, but to not say how much I enjoyed “Life After Death” would be a shame. Damien Echols was wrongly convicted of murder and sent to Death Row for 18 years. I’ve written several things over the years about my outrage of the case, so I’m not going into detail on any of that because it can be found all over the internet. What I will say is that my admiration for Damien Echols grew with every page. For somebody to go through so many horrible events in one lifetime and still to come out of it alive and unbroken is a miracle in itself. Damien talks about his childhood and the not so pleasant conditions he grew up in and continued to take us on a journey of his life all the way up to the night he was arrested for murder. The corrupt cops, lawyers, and the judge that had a hand in arresting and convicting Damien (along with Jason and Jessie) just make me sick. I’m still stunned at how those people got away with a modern day Salem’s Witch Trial. The majority of “Life After Death” was wrote from prison and I cant even begin to describe how I felt when he described the conditions he lived in for half his life and the things he witnessed while locked away like an animal. Damien has a wonderful way with words and wrote in much detail. I often found myself going through a wide range of emotions while reading: Anger, disbelief, sadness, disgust and even laughter at times. While there was a lot of dark days in his life (understatement I know), he found a light where most people wouldn’t and managed to survive. “Life After Death” was filled with a lot of heart and soul in every page and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the world from his eyes and I couldn’t be happier that he’s now able to experience life and all its magik as a free man.