Spoken in Darkness

by Ann E. Imbrie

Book Overview

The friend of a murdered young woman investigates the events that led this small-town girl into the sordid world of drugs and prostitution and reveals how she came to be the victim of a serial killer.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1562828428
• ISBN13: 9781562828424
• Release Date: May 1993
• Publisher: Hachette Books
• Length: 259 Pages
• Weight: 2.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Postsecondary to Grade 12

Customer Reviews

A Truly Soulful Book

This is a difficult book to describe. Although it is classified as such, it is not at all "true crime" and those who are looking for strict true crime will be disappointed. Ann Imbrie's "Spoken In Darkness" is basically the author's search for the memory of a murdered friend, both externally through research which includes courthouse searches and interviews; and, to a greater degree, through her own memories of her friend, Lee Snavely. The author was best friends with Lee for only a couple of years, but when she heard Lee had been killed she began her search, and in doing so she beautifully and honestly uses the experience to also examine her own childhood and her relationship with her parents, and to contrast that childhood with Lee Snavely's in an attempt to explain to herself how a friend she truly loved could end up so differently from herself - Lee a murdered prostitute; Imbrie a college professor. And, in fact, the book is at least as much about the author and her emotions as she remembers her friend as it is about the friend herself. This is a highly literate work written at an unusual level of tenderness and honesty. Lee Snavely's murder, and some of her adult life, are described by Imbrie only as products of her imagination. This does not at all detract from the purpose of the book, which is to a great degree more emotional than factual. The pain in Imbrie's writing about Lee Snavely's childhood is palpable and explains why Lee's life unfolded as it did. "Spoken In Darkness" is a truly soulful book.

Spoken in Darkness

I really enjoyed reading the book. I am an eighth grader at Bowling Green Junior High. I felt like I understood alot about the Lee and that I could relate to some of her problems. I thought that the book was wonderful. Thank you Ann Imbrie!

An achingly beautiful tribute to a lost friend

This book took my breath away with the beauty of its lyricism and metaphors. Many writers attempting to tie a traumatic event in with their own lives fail to do so with total clarity - Imbrie is not guilty of this flaw! The violent loss of a friend and its implications to the author's own life are brilliantly set forth by this author. As a former student of Imbrie's I can attest to the sincerity of this book as well as to her innate gift with words. Women whose lives have been touched by violence will especially appreciate this book, a real work of literary art as well as a beautiful tribute to a lost (stolen!) friend.

Haunting and Invigorating

This book, which details the downward spiral and eventual murder of a small town girl is well-written and powerful in its depiction of the lives of both the victim and the author. The brilliance of this book is its quiet but forceful demonstrations of the injustices against women in our society. The insight it gives into the world of two young women -- one who went on to become a professor at a prestigious college and the other, a prostitute, who was brutally murdered at the hands of a sociopath -- is enlightening and cutting as a commentary on both this country's justice system and on American society.

Elegaic...

Spoken in Darkness is the book The Dead Girl wanted to be. It is more a memoir about growing up in a town that doesn't care and beginning to question why it doesn't care, than about the actual incident. Imbrie asks how her and her friend's lives ended up so different...and why she didn't know about the darkness in her friend's life...how they lost touch...and how her friend slipped away. At the end, Imbrie asks how this world can hold such evil as the animal that took out his hatred on her friend that slipped through the cracks in our fragile world so long ago. Every woman knows that the line between a safe, protected life and being lost in a dark basement forever is thin. Very thin. Every woman knows that our safetey depends on the caring of each other. This is what this book is about. The Dead Girl has some passages I underlined about safety, but Spoken In Darkness is elegaic. Neither book is really about the victim or the perpetrator. Both are about why we care and look out for each other ... or lose sight of each other , let go of eather other's hand, in our dark, dangerous world