A Little Piece of Light

April 15, 2018
A criminal justice reform advocate's story about how her personal history of abuse and poor judgment led to incarceration for crimes she did not commit.Hylton was barely 8 when she left her native Jamaica with Americans Daphne and Roy, who promised her a "magical" trip to Disney World. Instead, she found herself in New York, the unwitting adopted daughter of a cold woman and her sexual predator husband. A school guidance counselor later confronted Daphne with Hylton's story of sexual abuse, but Daphne denied it and forced Hylton to apologize. Desperate to flee a dysfunctional family situation, the author applied for a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school. In her confusion, she ran away with Roy's friend Alvin, who offered sanctuary but instead made her pregnant. She spent the remainder of her teens trying to be "a mother, find a job, and straighten out my life" and recovering from a series of rapes. Eventually, she found a stable job as a shop clerk and befriended a woman named Maria, who promised she would help Hylton find money to begin a modeling career. Instead, Maria drew the author into a web of mob intrigue that led to Hylton's wrongful conviction for kidnapping and second-degree murder. Over the next 25 years in prison, she came into contact with women of all backgrounds--including "Long Island Lolita" Amy Fisher--who had also been victims of molestation and abuse. Hylton formed powerful relationships with them and became involved in prison groups promoting pathways beyond hopelessness and despair. Intimate and disturbing, the book reveals the ways women are silenced and victimized in society, and it also tells the inspiring story of how one woman survived a prison nightmare to go on to help other incarcerated women "speak out about the violence in their lives."A wrenching memoir of overcoming seemingly insurmountable abuse and finding fulfillment.

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May 1, 2018
Hylton, formerly known as inmate #86G0206, begins her gripping memoir with her earliest memory. A young toddler, she's being tossed high in her mother's arms while she and her mother laugh. Then she is falling, cracking her head hard on concrete: her mother dropped her on purpose. What unfolds from this moment to Hylton's sentencing of 25 years to life for kidnapping and second-degree murder is a heart-wrenching exploration of the atrocities vulnerable young girls, especially those without an adult in their lives who they can trust, can endure. However, despite the horrific events in Hylton's early life, her book, written with coauthor Gasbarre, tells a tale far beyond tragedy. It is a meditation on redemption and learning to love and forgive, because she found her true self in the darkest of all places?prison. At Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, Hylton realized she wasn't alone in her experiences and decided to become an advocate for women's rights and criminal-justice reform. A film based on Hylton's inspiring story, starring Rosario Dawson, is currently in development.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)