by Amanda Berry
First published 2015
On May 6, 2013, Amanda Berry breaks free from a Cleveland house and screams into her phone: "Help me, I'm Amanda Berry. I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for ten years." Her escape exposes a decade of horror. School bus driver Ariel Castro had lured Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight to his home, where he chained and imprisoned them. For ten years, Castro raped and tortured the three women while threatening to kill them. Berry gave birth to a daughter, Jocelyn, fathered by their captor. Berry and DeJesus now tell their story, drawing from Berry's secret diary and their memories of captivity. They reveal how they survived psychological torment, protected each other, and planned their eventual freedom. Pulitzer Prize winning reporters Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan add investigative reporting about Castro's background and the search efforts that failed to find the missing women. This account shows how courage and determination helped two survivors reclaim their lives.
Genres: abuse, crime, non-fiction, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, overcoming-adversity
Setting: Cleveland
Period: 2013, Decade
321 pages · Hardcover · Viking
Content warnings: abuse, kidnapping, physical-abuse, sexual-assault, torture