Audiobook Review: Free: My Search for Meaning by Amanda Knox
Free: My Search for Meaning
Author: Amanda Knox
Narrator: Amanda Knox
Published: March 25, 2025
Audiobook: 10 hours 18 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: April 21-27, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
Amanda Knox reflects on her world-famous confinement in an Italian prison—and her return to an “ordinary” life—to reveal hard-won truths about purpose and fulfillment that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt trapped in their own circumstances.
Amanda Knox spent nearly four years in prison and eight years on trial for a murder she didn’t commit—and became a notorious tabloid story in the process. Though she was exonerated, it’s taken more than a decade for her to reclaim her identity and truly feel free.
Free recounts how Knox survived incarceration, the mistakes she made and misadventures she had reintegrating into society, and culminates in the as-yet-untold story of her return to Italy and the extraordinary relationship she went on to build with the man who sent her to prison. It is the moving saga of how she wrests back her own life from the grip of her story’s notoriety and returns to the quiet matters of a normal life—seeking a life partner, finding a job, or even just going out in public.
In harrowing (and sometimes hilarious) detail, Amanda reveals her personal growth and hard-fought wisdom, recasting her public reckoning as a private reflection on the search for meaning and purpose that will speak to everyone who has persevered through hardship.
Jessica’s Review:
Amanda Knox: Hers is a name we all know and think we know the story, but we don’t. There is so much more to her story and after her eventual acquittal. Free: My Search for Meaning gives us her story of moving on and becoming the strong woman that she is.
Free does mention some of her time in prison, but the main focus is her life afterwards. She works to persevere and rise above her past challenges to become whom she now is. She is herself without apology, take it or leave it, and like her or don’t.
I learned more about her and her story. I was not aware that she eventually married and has children. She also developed a relationship with her former prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, eventually writing him and shockingly becoming friends! She is a stronger woman that I am. I could never see myself reaching out to the man who believed I killed my roommate and who was determined to see me be in prison for as long as possible.
Knox is very eloquent in both her writing and narration. She has definitely become Free and has moved on in her life. Thank you for bringing your story to us Amanda.
Book Review: Diary from the Lunatic Asylum by Mary Pengilly
Diary from the Lunatic Asylum
Author: Mary Pengilly
Published: November 2, 2012
28 Pages
Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
DECEMBER.—They will not allow me to go home, and I must write these things down for fear I forget. It will help to pass the time away. It is very hard to endure this prison life, and know that my sons think me insane when I am not.
Kim’s Review:
So this isn’t a horror story; it’s not even fiction. I’m not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed. However, once I figured out that this was an actual diary, written by a real woman who had been committed to a real asylum, I just went for it. It’s definitely not as good as Nellie Bly’s account, but it was interesting and informative. Mrs. Pengilly managed to write an account from a relatively neutral viewpoint, while still keeping a handle on all the problems. It’s a simple, easy to read report on her stay, the issues in the Aylin’s of her time, and a list of solutions. I looked up Mrs. Pengilly after I finished reading this book, and she went on to spearhead some cool movements to try to improve conditions for female patients.
It’s not a book I’d recommend to everyone, but it’s a good personal story that I enjoyed reading.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Gunnar Hansen’s Chain Saw Confidential
Chain Saw Confidential: How We Made the World’s Most Notorious Horror Movie
Author: Gunnar Hansen
Published: September 24, 2013
Audiobook
Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
When The Texas Chain Saw Massacre first hit movie screens in 1974 it was both reviled and championed. To critics, it was either “a degrading, senseless misuse of film and time” or “an intelligent, absorbing and deeply disturbing horror film.” However it was an immediate hit with audiences. Banned and celebrated, showcased at the Cannes film festival and included in the New York MoMA’s collection, it has now come to be recognized widely as one of the greatest horror movies of all time.
A six-foot-four poet fresh out of grad school with limited acting experience, Gunnar Hansen played the masked, chain-saw-wielding Leatherface. His terrifying portrayal and the inventive work of the cast and crew would give the film the authentic power of nightmare, even while the gritty, grueling, and often dangerous independent production would test everyone involved, and lay the foundations for myths surrounding the film that endure even today.
Critically-acclaimed author Hansen here tells the real story of the making of the film, its release, and reception, offering unknown behind-the-scenes details, a harrowingly entertaining account of the adventures of low-budget filmmaking, illuminating insights on the film’s enduring and influential place in the horror genre and our culture, and a thoughtful meditation on why we love to be scared in the first place.
Kim’s Review:
A while ago, I made the admission that I love horror. I can blame Ivan for introducing me to horror movies, but even before that, I loved the horror genre in books. The scarier the better! Ivan and our friend, Adam, have talked about Texas Chainsaw Massacre before and I had begged Ivan to watch it with me. He included the soundtrack from the remake on his Halloween playlist and that theme is seriously the scariest score I have ever heard, but I couldn’t watch the remake until I watched the original, so I asked Ivan again to watch it with me. Finally, FINALLY, we sat down to watch it . . . blew my friggin mind! I jumped, I squealed, I shut my eyes, I asked why . . . but what shocked me was that a week afterward, I was still pondering. Ivan has a habit of asking me what I’m thinking about while we’re driving, and that week, I answered “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” He got so excited and we ended up having conservation after conversation about this dang movie!
I have to say, I really love Chainsaw! It’s violent and graphic and horrible, but it’s riveting! I was so intrigued and continue to be so! Audible had a Halloween sale and look! A book by the man who played Leatherface all about the filming of the movie!!! I bought it, and listened to it, and now I want to watch Chainsaw again!! I learned so much; the people behind this movie were just as crazy as you’d expect. Reading about the dinner scene was enlightening and I was surprised at how horrible the filming was for the cast and crew. I am so sad that Gunnar Hansen is dead and I can never meet him. Toby Hooper, the director, is also dead . . . I was born in the wrong decade. This book isn’t for everybody, but if you are a horror fan, then this book is for you! I absolutely recommend it and the original movie!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Here is the movie trailer for the 1974 version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre:
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