This book is a summary of the original book "Finding A Decade of Darkness, a Life A Memoir of the Cleveland Kidnappings" that was written by Michelle Knight compiled for you so that you can take away the major ideas and change your life in the shortest amount of time possible. This book is for you if you want to devour the greatest books even with a busy schedule. It makes for a great companion and guide to the original book.
Also included in this book are links to some of the most personal and emotional interviews with Michelle Knight after her escape and recovery.
"Michelle Knight’s Finding A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed is a story about hope. Despite Knight’s tragic upbringing and disturbingly brutal decade in captivity, throughout the book she describes her attempts to be brave. As obstacle after obstacle presented itself to her in life, Michelle Knight’s faith and will to survive grew deeper. By the end of her journey, both Knight’s love of life and relationship with God are stronger than ever.
“... I’m opening up my life in this I want everyone to remember those who are lost.” These words convey what author Michelle Knight sees as the only reason she should be writing this memoir. She opens up the preface to her recounting of a harrowing decade in captivity by first noting her relative silence leading up to the book. Not only has she said very little about what happened between she and her fellow captives, Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry, but she hasn’t said much about the life she lead before being kidnapped. So why now?
Her purpose, as emphasized in the quote above, is to bring attention to a serious issue. Very few people consider the likelihood of a kidnapping, or think of it as something that happens often. And yet, as the author points out, she wasn’t the only person to disappear over the summer in 2002. She hasn’t even spent the longest time in captivity. As she mentions, in 2013 a trio of women in London were discovered who had spent over thirty years in slavery. Clearly there’s a problem here that Knight can uniquely put the spotlight on.
She talks about how there were no vigils held for her, no posters put up, no search party. When she disappeared, it was as if she had never existed. Her son was adopted by a new family, and the world moved on. She felt, as she said, as if she were “screaming at the top of my lungs, but no one could hear me.”
Knight ends the preface with a final message about perseverance and keeping her spirit. Though she had been chained up, tied up, abused and underfed for roughly eleven years, she somehow never gave up. This book, then, is not just a message about the dangers of kidnapping, but a message to those who have lost hope."