My Review of "Kill the Silence"

Monika Korra's Kill the Silence: A Survivor's Life Reclaimed tells Monika's story, beginning with her life as a college Sophomore in 2009. She was grabbed by three men on her way home from a party and violently raped. Monika resolved, just immediately after being released from the hospital, that she would not be a victim -- instead, Monika is a survivor. Monika had traveled from her home in Norway to Southern Methodist University in Dallas determined to acclimate to life in the States and excited for the opportunity of a fun scholarship to do what she loved. As an athlete and Olympic hopeful, Monika already knew how to train against extreme fatigue soreness and distraction. She was stepping-stones to achieve her goals.

Persistence and patience had always been her greatest tools. After the attack, she used the same qualities to regain her self-identity and find a "new normal". Stripped of her sense of security, she slowly rebuilt her life with the help of her friends, family and her own unflappable spirit. Monika shares the inspiring combination of mental and physical work that gave her the strength to win her greatest fight yet: The court case against the three men who had attacked her. She testified against them with confidence and a fierce determination that these men would never be able to hurt anyone else. In the end two of them received life sentences one with parole and one, for the worst of the three men without parole.

Monika's story is the story of survival and courage in the face of violence, the story of the importance of friendship and others in overcoming adversity, the story of individual bravery.

Kill the Silence is not a book to be missed.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

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