This memoir is a perfect example of how things affect people in different ways. The story is mostly written by Amanda Berry, with random remembrances interjected by Gina DeJesus, along with some case notes by the police department about how they kept missing this guy on their radar. Makes a person wonder why they all didn't just write separate stories. While not a stark contrast in facts to the story that Michelle Knight wrote about her experience in the same Cleveland kidnappers house, still some differences were noted. The fact that one girl was treated better (Amanda) clearly shows through but some details differ. Case in point, Amanda and Gina say the girls were allowed to be downstairs on occasion but that Michelle chose to stay in her room. While Michelle's version is that she was made to stay upstairs and not allowed down with the rest. I think it is all in the perception. Regardless all three of these girls (now women) survived a horrific ordeal and have gone on to try to live normal lives. Hopefully sharing their stories has been therapeutic for them. ( )

This was a remarkable story showing exactly how brave these 3 women were when looking into the face of pure evil. ( )

In the spring of 2003, 17 year old Amanda Berry, walking home from work, was lured into a van by the father of a schoolmate. She was then taken to his house (still believing he was taking her to see her friend), where she was grabbed, brutally raped, and then chained up in the basement. She, and later Gina DeJesus, would remain in this house until 2013. Also there was Michelle Knight, who decided to tell her story on her own, so she is largely absent from these pages.

For ten long years, they were held inside without even a window to look out of. They were chained up, repeatedly raped, not fed nearly enough, terrified the whole time. Amanda had a baby girl while captive. Her rapist, Ariel Castro, was very proud to be a father and doted on the baby- while still keeping Amanda chained up. Amanda tried to raise the little girl with some sense of normalcy, teaching her to read, write, and do arithmetic. Castro enjoyed allowing the girls to watch the TV news when their families were on, begging for the return of their loved ones- an extra little bit of sadism.

The story is nothing short of horrifying. Castro and his treatment of the young women was viscerally revolting to me. The families and the police searched for them for years without finding anything. They despaired that they would never be found, never get out. Castro lied to each of them, telling them how he liked each one better than the others and that the other girls were saying bad things about them, driving a wedge between them so they could only look to him and not have warm feelings for the others. Now, Amanda and Gina are best friends- who else could understand what they have been through?-and have the support of their families again. I’m amazed at how well they have settled back into normal lives. They are very strong people to have survived as they did- I know I could never have survived in their situation.

The book alternates points of view, not just of the two girls, but also third person sections that show what their families, the police, and Castro himself were doing at the time. Amanda kept a diary of sorts; she intended to remember every detail and wrote in notebooks Castro bought her; when she filled those, she wrote on pizza boxes, receipts, and any other piece of paper she could find. The book was riveting; like a bad auto accident, I wanted to look away but couldn’t. Five stars, but very, very hard to read. ( )

This is the true story of the 3 teenage girls abducted in Cleveland, Ohio in the early 2000s by Ariel Castro. Their escape captivated the nation, but they didn't speak much publicly about what they endured during their captivation. This story is written in their own words (by 2 of the 3 survivors), aided by the diary kept by Amanda Berry during the 10 years she was held prisoner. The story is rounded out by reporters who lend details about what was happening in their community during this time. The story is fascinating in its details, especially in the coincidences and tiny, seemingly insignificant decisions that led to the abductions, and in the sheer volume of interactions that their captor had with their friends and family members while the women were missing.

The book is easy to read. Each short chapter is headed by a date. It is both heartbreaking and voyeuristic without being too graphic. And the title "hope" is fitting because so many of the people involved maintained hope in the face of adversity. ( )

The journalists’ portions of this book: well-researched, factually reported breakdown of the crime and of who Ariel Castro was.
Gina and Amanda’s portions of this book: honest sharing interlaced with unnecessary and heavy doses of We Don’t Like Michelle Knight

Seriously. There were parts of this book where it seemed the message was how much they both dislike Michelle, today, rather than what happened to them, then.
I am carefully separating this present pettiness from the mind games Castro would play with the three girls; I completely understand the difference. But it’s so blatant that, in the conclusion, you learn that Amanda and Gina go to the White House for an event honoring the missing, and Michelle is excluded. If I’d been through ten years of hell, and someone else had suffered in that hell *even longer*, it would not matter to me how I felt about her as a person. I would make completely sure she was by my side at that White House event because she is also a survivor.

Let me put it this way: I am an avid reader of true crime, and I was glad and relieved when this book ended. ( )