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Random Family meets Orange Is the New Black in A Little Piece of Light, a memoir of survival, redemption, hope, and sisterhood from a bold new voice on the front lines of the criminal justice reform movement. Like so many women before her and so many women yet to come, Donna Hylton's early life was a nightmare of abuse that left her feeling alone and convinced of her worthlessness. In 1986, she took part in a horrific act and was sentenced to 25 years to life for kidnapping and second-degree murder. It seemed that Donna had reached the end--at age 19, due to her own mistakes and bad choices, her life was over. A Little Piece of Light tells the heartfelt, often harrowing tale of Donna's journey back to life as she faced the truth about the crime that locked her away for 27 years...and celebrated the family she found inside prison that ultimately saved her. Behind the bars of Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, alongside this generation's most infamous criminals, Donna learned to fight, then thrive. For the first time in her life, she realized she was not alone in the abuse and misogyny she experienced--and she was also not alone in fighting back. Since her release in 2012, Donna has emerged as a leading advocate for criminal justice reform and women's rights who speaks to politicians, violent abusers, prison officials, victims, and students to tell her story. But it's not her story alone, she is quick to say. She also represents the stories of thousands of women who have been unable to speak for themselves, until now.… (more)
User reviews
My truth is that I found this story difficult, if
We are repeatedly told how beautiful she was, as if that in itself is the reason every single person in her life wanted to rape her. No one, at any time, attempted to help this child. The school counselor even ignored her pleas. It's as if pedophiles and rapists surrounded her at every turn. Then, when she escapes all her abusers and has the baby daughter she claims to want to protect no matter what, she takes that baby and begs her abusive adoptive parents to take her and the baby in. Why would she subject her child to the same torment she'd endured?
We are also repeatedly told, over and over and over, how brilliant she is. And, yes, she probably was a brilliant child. In fact, she supposedly won a full scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, which she didn't use because she ran away with the young man who abused her. I couldn't put together how a girl who ranked third overall in the nation could so easily slip from everyone's radar, with not one teacher or counselor taking an interest - unless it was to rape her.
The sexual violence is graphic. For a book intended to offer hope, we have an abundance of extremely dark, detailed violence.
Then we get to the part referencing her crime, for which she downplays and avoids responsibility. As with everything else in her life, she is the victim here. Her crime was not one of passion. She did not kill her abuser(s). Her claim, I think, is that past trauma made her vulnerable and led to her part in torture and murder. And, yes, I can understand how that could happen in certain circumstances. Abuse victims sometimes go on to abuse others. The culmination of everything, though, was too much for me.
In prison, of course, she finds God and was saved. God seems to hang out a lot in prison, absolving sins and responsibility.