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MCBC Tri-State

A Morbidly Curious Book Club for interested folks in the Tri-State area of Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia, including the cities of Ashland KY, Portsmouth/Ironton OH and Huntington WV.

A Light in the Dark: Surviving More than Ted Bundy

THE FIRST BOOK BY A CONFIRMED SURVIVOR OF TED BUNDY, AND THE ONLY MEMOIR TO CHALLENGE THE POPULAR NARRATIVE OF BUNDY AS A HANDSOME KILLER WHO CHARMED HIS VICTIMS INTO TRUSTING HIM

In January 1978, I slept in my bed at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University as Ted Bundy stalked nearby.
He grabbed an oak log from a stack of firewood, slipped through a back door with a broken padlock, and headed upstairs.He began twisting doorknobs. Room 9 was open, and he quietly and quickly killed one of my sleeping sorority sisters. Across the hall, he found another unlocked door and murdered again. Then, he turned the knob to my bedroom and found it was open. I remember the attack vividly. Bundy bashed me once in the head with the log and then attacked my roommate. He heard me moaning and came to finish me off. He never let his victims live. But he stopped suddenly when a bright light filled the room. He fled the sorority house and the light disappeared.

Bundy wasn't my first brush with death, and he wasn't my last. I've long been a survivor. I was born into a Cuban American family in 1957 in Florida. I had a happy childhood until I received my first death sentence at the age of thirteen. Physicians weren't sure why I was always so exhausted and running a low-grade fever. The prognosis was grim after my left kidney started to fail. Then, a physician from Cuba saved my life with a surprise diagnosis--lupus--and treatment plan: chemotherapy. I endured chemotherapy again in my early thirties when I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.

This is my story of surviving three death sentences and finding love and happiness along the way. I was saved by a bright light, and I hope my story is one for people who are experiencing their own dark times. I am a victim, but I am also a survivor, and I want to speak up for all the women and girls whom Bundy murdered.

He has become a legend, and our voices have been muted or ignored. It's time we were heard.

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312 pages

Average rating: 7.75

317 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Gldilox
Aug 19, 2024
6/10 stars
It was a very simple read and has an important message - reframe the legacy of serial killers around the victims instead of immortalizing the criminal and crimes
Anewsom713
Aug 01, 2024
8/10 stars
I enjoyed this book, and I especially liked how frank it was written. Bundy was such a monster, and I really felt for those women.
jhbandcats
Jul 29, 2024
6/10 stars
I really, really wanted to like this book. The author went through so many horrific experiences, from almost dying of lupus at age twelve, to being severely beaten by Bundy at age twenty, to having breast cancer in her early 30s, to living in New Orleans for five months without electricity after Katrina. (While the last wasn’t life-threatening, it was still an awful time in the author’s life.) So many horrific experiences, just so many. That said, there was so much repetition - we were told over and over that Bundy wasn’t a handsome, clever charmer; the victims weren’t foolish enough to get a car with him so victim-blaming is particularly wrong; the sorority sisters were especially hurtful in distancing themselves from the author; her mother was annoying and not as supportive as she could have been. I was really frustrated that I kept reading the same thing - perhaps a sterner editor would have made a difference. I feel guilty that I’m badmouthing the book written by a Bundy victim - I feel I should be more sympathetic. But then I think of the extraordinary memoir The Railway Man* by Eric Lomax. It’s so well-written. It’s a great example of a memoir by someone who suffered terribly. So I’m sorry not to write a glowing review but I really did not like this book. *Don’t waste time seeing the movie.
Jenn4 Gators
Jul 27, 2024
8/10 stars
Such an amazing story of strength and perseverance. Written by am amazing woman and honoring the victims. Also sets the record straight about a serial killer that was given too much credit.
SoWestCoast
Jul 25, 2024
8/10 stars
I like how the author has asked us to correct people when others call Brady "charming" or "smart". He was a coward and less than average when it came to education. I did not know how he acted during his execution and I found it interesting. Thank you to the survivor for her incredible story.

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