Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed: A Memoir of the Cleveland Kidnappings

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For Michelle it was her son Joey that gave her the will to keep living. The day she had been kidnapped she was on her way to a court hearing about regaining custody of him. Abuse in the home by her mother’s boyfriend led to Joey being put in protective custody. Unfortunately, Michelle never made it to court, but she also never lost sight of her son. She even spoke to him as though he were there with her in the house of horrors. Ohio suspect's brothers released from custody". Yahoo!. Associated Press. May 9, 2013. Archived from the original on June 9, 2013 . Retrieved May 13, 2013. a b Atassi, Leila (May 7, 2013). "Michelle Knight's 'normal teenage life,' plagued by troubles in years before disappearance". The Plain Dealer. Archived from the original on June 7, 2013 . Retrieved May 13, 2013. Michelle Knight -- now known as Lily Rose Lee -- captured the world's attention in May 2013, when she and two fellow kidnapping victims were found and freed after being held for more than a decade by notorious Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro.

Alcindor, Yamiche; Leger, Donna Leinwand; Johnson, Kevin (May 7, 2013). "Reports of sex abuse, beatings inside Cleveland house". USA Today. Archived from the original on May 12, 2013 . Retrieved May 13, 2013. I'm glad Michelle allowed us to share the parts of her captivity that she could bear to share. Eleven years is an eternity when you are being systematically abused both physically and mentally. Amanda and Michelle were chained together and forcefully raped, experiencing their own pain and each other's. Michelle was starved and beaten so that she would miscarry each of her five pregnancies. Amanda had a daughter who brought a little light to utter darkness. Delusional Ariel thought that he could be a good father, take her out in public and even talked about gaining custody after the girls were freed. I am blown away by how the human spirit finds a way to reach for hope. In the book all three girls used drawing to pass the time, two kept journals. Even though they were beaten, half starved and dying, those journals gave them peace and helped prosecute the monster that kidnapped them. The scenes described are graphic but not overly so. It does describe plenty of upsetting and violent scenes involving rape, so if you can't handle that kind of thing, this is not for you. The chains pictured above are something I kept thinking of when she was describing their daily lives. Michelle and the other two woman kidnapped were chained most of kidnapping for over ten years. The depravity and cruelty of the monster that took them knows no bounds. Harp, Carl (May 6, 2013). "Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus & Michele Knight Recovered From Tremont Home, Multiple People Arrested". CBS Cleveland. Archived from the original on May 17, 2013 . Retrieved May 13, 2013. Hutchinson, Bill (May 7, 2013). "Main Cleveland kidnapping suspect's son says dad recently asked him whether one of the victims would be found". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on May 9, 2013 . Retrieved May 13, 2013.

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The Abductions of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus & Ashley Summers". Oprah.com. October 12, 2009. Archived from the original on May 9, 2013 . Retrieved May 13, 2013. Michelle was a young single mother when she was kidnapped by a local school bus driver named Ariel Castro. For more than a decade afterward, she endured unimaginable torture at the hand of her abductor. In 2003 Amanda Berry joined her in captivity, followed by Gina DeJesus in 2004. Their escape on May 6, 2013, made headlines around the world. I’ve honestly been avoiding reviewing this book since I finished reading it. I didn’t find the subject matter too heavy (at least for me) or find that it was poorly written. However, I did struggle to connect with the author and as a result to the events. But while DeJesus and Berry had homes to go to, Knight didn't. Sure enough, her family turned up, but she wasn't interested; she moved into the sheltered accommodation. "My mother says she always loved me, when she never loved me at all. All the things she said on the news: we owned a farm, I had a horse. I never lived on a farm, I never had a horse. Just be real. That's all I want from her, to be real." Barbara Knight denies she was a bad mother and last autumn told an US TV show: "Her point of view has been altered by that monster and what he did to her. What I've heard that she said about me breaks my heart." Sheeran, Thomas J. (July 17, 2013). "Ohio kidnapping, rape suspect pleads not guilty". Associated Press. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013 . Retrieved October 4, 2013.

Feran, Tom (March 14, 2015). "Michelle Knight conquers her fears after 'dangling in the wind' ". The Plain Dealer. Archived from the original on March 16, 2015 . Retrieved March 16, 2015. Knight has changed her own name legally to Lily[...]but she uses her better-known birth name in public appearances. Sherwell, Philip (May 7, 2013). "Ohio abductions: friendship between Ariel Castro's daughter and Gina DeJesus". The Daily Telegraph. London, England. Archived from the original on May 8, 2013 . Retrieved May 16, 2013. Michelle Knight now lives in Ohio after legally changing her name to Lily Rose Lee. She is a best-selling author whose story moves people.Charges against Castro brothers expected soon". WOIO. May 8, 2013. Archived from the original on June 15, 2013 . Retrieved May 13, 2013. To heal. I'd like you to get your stomach sorted. I'd like you to be healthy, physically and mentally. I hope you can fulfil your dream. I don't know whether it will be running a restaurant or singing, but I know you've got the confidence and discipline to do it. But it will be a lot of hard work." Jones, tough, polished and immaculate, starts to wobble. She dabs her eyes. After a few months had passed, there was talk about the women writing a book about what they had gone through. Immediately I made a decision that I wouldn’t read any of their books. I just couldn’t bear to read –let alone imagine what had happened over the eleven-year period. However, while searching for my next read, I stumbled upon Michelle’s memoir. Something tugged at my heart, and I knew I had to read her story.

Michelle Knight needs "facial reconstruction" after Cleveland rescue, grandmother says". CBS News. May 10, 2013. Archived from the original on May 16, 2013 . Retrieved May 13, 2013. As a result of the sexual abuse Knight suffered during her time as a prisoner, she reportedly became pregnant five times but miscarried each time after being starved and beaten by Castro. Two other young women, Berry and DeJesus were later abducted by Castro; Knight was forced to deliver the child Berry gave birth to while in captivity. Castro also taunted Knight about the fact that DeJesus and Berry had family members desperate to find them, while no one was looking for her. Rescue and Life After Maria Cabeza's reading was done very well; I doubt I could have done as good a job reading material like that. The story never seemed exceptionally graphic, although several parts made me cringe -- the forced abortions in particular were horrendous to hear. It's difficult to review the book as far as what was "good" vs "bad" in the traditional sense -- how do you critique someone else's life experiences, especially in a situation like this? Like most everyone else, I remember hearing about the constant news coverage when the women were found; the fact that I reside in northeast Ohio (though not in Cleveland) just makes their whole story that much more real for me. Gomez, Henry J. (May 13, 2013). "The rescue of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight: 30 minutes that ended a decade of nightmares". The Plain Dealer. Archived from the original on May 15, 2013 . Retrieved May 13, 2013. Ariel Castro is the father of Amanda Berry's child, state DNA results say". The Plain Dealer. May 10, 2013. Archived from the original on June 7, 2013 . Retrieved May 13, 2013.I gave this book a high rating, not because it was a great literary work or because it was such a good story, but because Michelle Knight was an incredible young woman. This was a horrible story and at times a very difficult book to read and yet as in the stories of Louis Zamperini (Unbroken), and Amanda Lindhout, (A House in the Sky), Michelle showed amazing fortitude, hope, courage, love and forgiveness. I would like to think I could survive great hardship if need be, yet I know at my best I couldn't come close to enduring what these people did and then live to forgive the offenders. In her teens she ran away, and lived on wasteland under a bridge. She stole a wheelie bin and made it her home. "I had my own little room, I didn't need to share it with anybody. I didn't have to hear my mother yelling, I didn't have to hear glasses breaking, things being thrown at the wall. If I wanted to sing, I didn't have to listen to my mum saying, 'You're a horrible singer, shut up.' "