Chanel Miller

Magnolia Wu's summer gets a bit more interesting when her mom's old friend moves to New York and Magnolia and Mrs. Lam's daughter Iris become friends. In her family's laundromat, Magnolia has pinned lost, lonely socks to a bulletin board, and Iris convinces her to find their owners and return them. This mission also serves to give Iris a tour of her new city - she misses California and the beach, although it turns out she and her mother left an abusive father - and Magnolia gets to introduce show more Iris to the neighborhood, and learn more about people she thinks she knows, from classmates to the school janitor.

This summary doesn't at all convey the absolute heart and charm of this book. Magnolia is so good and so real: happy to have a friend but inexperienced in the rules of friendship; witness to a racist incident against her family but proud of everything her parents have achieved; frustrated that her parents are always present, but always busy. She's independent and adventurous, curious and open-minded, and she loves her city.

See also: Clementine by Sara Pennypacker

Quotes

Magnolia was not a trench-coat-wearing, magnifying-glass-holding detective. She wore a simple T-shirt and reasonable sneakers, and her strengths were asking questions and being able to talk to people. Most importantly, for the first time in a long time, she had a friend, someone who believed in her before she did, which is a powerful thing. (25)

"When you need help, just ask for it," Lisa always said. (33)

Magnolia had never thought of an error as a creative act. (36)

How much she'd assumed about Jessica's life without actually ever asking her. (94)

Magnolia had never had a best friend and didn't know the responsibilities of the new position. How did best friends make up? ...Did fighting mean the end of things? Did people recover from these kinds of wounds? (105)

She knew that just below the surface of a person, there were endless unexpected layers and stories, pain and longings and dreams, and how grateful she was to have glimpsed them. (145) show less

Know My Name by Chanel Miller
Content warning for graphic depictions of sexual assault

This book is amazing, and I wish it didn't exist. It makes me angry and sad and furious. It makes me scream in injustice and break down in tears.

As women we carry around the possibility of sexual assault our whole lives. We are shown time and again that the world is not safe for us. Every woman has a story about a guy on the street, or in a club, or at work. A boyfriend who got too handsy, a stranger show more invading our space. And for many it's not a possibility but a reality.

Chanel Miller speaks about her own reality with startling honesty and compassionate detail about the horror and humiliation of what happened to her. She speaks about her life before Brock Turner assaulted her unconscious body outside of a Stanford frat party. She speaks about waking up in the hospital not knowing what had happened. No one really explaining why she was there. One officer saying they thought she might have been assaulted but it could turn out to be nothing.

It was not nothing.

This book was always going to be important but what makes it stand out is how skilled Chanel is as a writer. How in the midst of a book about sexual assault she places her own story in the centre. She is not just a body. She is not just a victim. She is a protective big sister, a funny stand up, an artist, a foster mom to aging dogs, she is so many more things that got lost or ignored in the wake of her assault when she became Brock Turner's victim, Brock Turner's accuser not a person in her own right but only how she relates to him and his actions. His future.

Over the course of the book, she becomes an advocate. First for herself and then for other survivors. I listened to this on audiobook and at fifteen hours it is long. Chanel has a slow way of talking that draws out the content longer than another narrator might have but to hear her own words in her own voice was an important and brave decision.

A book I would recommend everyone to read. show less

Este libro es un golpe en el estómago. Podemos sentir a la víctima y la pérdida de su humanidad.
Lo horrible de todo el proceso legal y el porqué decidió llegar hasta el final.
Cómo la prensa reporta los casos y cómo la gente comenta sin saber ni mierda.
Pero también cómo continúa después.
Da mucha rabia. Ojalá más hombres leyeran libros como éstos.

This book is a triumph. Chanel's story is harrowing but her grief and hardships are so powerfully written. She uses her voice to redefine what it means to be a victim of sexual assault and to call out how victims are treated by the legal system and society at large. Her victim statement is incredible. If you are sensitive to this topic skip this book, but otherwise it is a must-read.