A look at Chanel Miller’s “Know Her Name,” the memoir by Brock Turner victim. Photo from penguin.com.au.
Trigger Warning: This book mentions suicide, school shooting/violence and sexual assault.
If you followed national news back in 2016, you might have heard about the Brock Turner case: A student-athlete from Stanford University sexually assaulted an unconscious woman and was sentenced to six months in jail, where he ended up serving only three.
The victim at the time was known as Emily Doe because she wanted to stay anonymous. She wrote an incredibly powerful victim statement that she read to Turner about how much damage he had caused her. She let Buzzfeed News publish her statement, where it ended up blowing up astronomically throughout the internet.
When I was a freshman in high school, I read her statement and started crying. Over the years I’ve always thought of this poor woman and hoped that she was surviving after the severe trauma she had to go through. But then, in late 2019, Emily Doe decided to finally reveal herself when she published her memoir “Know My Name” about herself and her assault.
Her name is Chanel Miller.
After I finished reading the memoir, I was awestruck by how strong of a person she is. Miller grew up in Palo Alto, California, which is an incredibly intense career-driven area because it is known as the innovation capital of the United States. When she was in high school, four students committed suicide over the course of the school year and her school garnered national attention because of this. When she was in college at the University of Santa Barbara, there was an attack on campus and in the town where she lived. Ultimately, six people died, and 14 more were severely injured. These events all added up did severe damage to Miller’s psyche even before the trauma she experienced from the assault.
This memoir was beautifully written, which may be surprising because memoirs of public figures are often ghostwritten. However, Miller went to college for literature and hoped to become a children’s author before the tragic events that changed her life.
I could not put this book down and stayed up all night reading it. I cried with her. I was outraged. I was proud of her for slowly healing.
Miller made herself very vulnerable and completely opened up all of the emotions that she experienced. I truly am so happy for her, although I don’t know her, that she is still standing. She was assaulted by Turner and, furthermore, was assaulted by the media.
I think this book is fantastic at illuminating the problematic view people have of victims, as well as how much work still needs to be done in the justice system with the treatment of sexual assault cases. As a reader, you might think it’s not anything new to read because you have heard about the case before, but nothing can truly make you understand like reading the accounts from Miller herself as the victim. I think it’s impossible to finish reading this book and not feel extremely sympathetic towards sexual assault victims. It’s also highly likely you’ll come out of reading this book and feel angry like I did. This book is a beneficial read for everyone because the more people who read it, the more mindsets can call for change in our culture and in the justice system.
I would recommend this book to everyone because although it is on an incredibly hard topic, it is a very good read. I would love to discuss this book with anyone who gives it a read.