Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #332768 in Books
• Published on: 1995-04
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

From Publishers Weekly
On May 12, 1988, Claudia Brenner and her companion, Rebecca Wight, parked their car on Dead Woman's Hollow Road before starting on a hike on a part of the Appalachian Trail that runs through Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Pennsylvania. The next night, Friday the 13th, Brenner would make a four-mile hike out?this time alone and with five bullet wounds, four in her head and neck. Just two bullets had hit Wight, but one destroyed her liver and killed her. This is Brenner's recollection of the attack; of the hunt for her assailant, Stephen Roy Carr; her recovery; and her activism against anti-gay crimes. The bare outlines of Brenner's story are very powerful, but awkward writing and unnecessary switching of perspective from first person to a wildly omniscient third person ("Anne wished she could be at Hershey [Medical Center] that second.... Anne pushed a picture of Claudia's face with bullet holes in it out of her head") weaken it. More disturbing are Brenner's assumptions of homophobia, even on the part of two policemen who by all accounts acted honorably ("Although they were no less homophobic than the average state trooper, their units no more enlightened, they became committed to me, a lesbian crime victim and my lesbian family.") Without more supporting evidence, this kind of aside amounts to stereotyping, which Brenner, of all people, should abhor.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
When Brenner and her lover, Rebecca Wight, took a three-day camping trip on the Appalachian Trail in 1988, they planned on hiking, privacy, rest, and relaxation. Instead, while they made love in a secluded woodland, Stephen Roy Carr--a stranger to them--spied on them from concealment in a nearby thicket and then gunned them down, killing Wight (Brenner survived five wounds, four in the head and neck). Brenner's gripping account of those events and their aftermath leaves our nerves pulsing and raw and constitutes powerful testimony at a time--the present--when hate crimes against members of specific minorities are increasing and domestic terrorism seems to touch everyone's life. Perhaps Brenner's compelling book will also have TV talk show hosts busy with hate-crime programming, but it definitely deserves a place in any true crime or public affairs collection. Whitney Scott

Midwest Book Review
In May 1988, on the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania, a horrific shooting attack left 28 year old Rebecca Wight dead. Her partner, Claudia Brenner, was seriously wounded. In Eight Bullets: One Woman's Story Of Surviving Anti-Gay Violence, Claudia Brenner writes a profoundly personal, emotionally riveting, politically energizing account of the murder and its aftermath: her path to recovery and activism. Eight Bullets is about a lesbian victim of a violent hate crime, her family and community, as they grapple with trauma, the medical system, the police nd courts, the media. It is about the realities of homophobia (in the world and in themselves) and the existence of friends and strangers willing to work together to seek justice and healing. Most of all, it is about one woman's courage and determination after encountering the unspeakable. Claudia Brenner explores both her pain and the redemptive power of love an shared commitments in this deeply affecting book. In the process, she offers inspiration for our own struggles. Eight Bullets stands as a testament and as a warning. The testament to courage in the face of loss. The warning: The price of freedom is a blood price. Only by uniting together can we survive together.

Customer Reviews

A Must Read !
This book will grab your interest right from the prologue as in Claudia's own words she recounts the camping trip and the horror that followed. Claudia's vernacular "chosen family" etc. will ring a bell with those in the community. I felt as if I was listening to a friend speak of a terrible tragedy.
Claudia's wild trek out of the woods after the shooting, her vivid descriptions of it all made me ache..for her and Rebecca. Even though I knew the outcome I was still hoping that somehow it would be different......
I didnt' feel that Claudia was emotionless at all in the telling The very fact that she could speak of it, could put down in words that unbelievable tragedy speaks of her own courage and strength.
I found the book easy to read and the small breaks of the third person are actually a welcome respite from the terror.You can breathe a bit more before Claudia comes back to tell her story.
This is a page turner, real people that you come to care for and pray for and hope for a different ending.
I have never been camping and after reading this......I never will be!
Thank you Claudia for the strength to tell your story! Rebecca lives on!

Good enough to teach
I read this book several years ago for the very first time. Since then I've browsed through it over the years to remember how lucky I am that I was able to read it and live an activist life full of efforts to iradicate this type of violence. It was a quick read in some ways, because I didn't want to put it down; but then in some ways, it took a while to get through because I HAD to put it down. It shook me to tears. It's an emotionally charged piece of writing that is so descriptive, that I lost all concept of space and time once I started reading. I am currently a teacher at the 12th grade level and have included Brenner's story on my course syllabus in an effort to outrage and organize a new generation of peace-mongers. I hope that Claudia's story will touch them as deeply as it's touched me.

The Whole Truth
Hey, I haven't read this book, giving it a five anyways and I will read it someday, but I would like to inform all who actually read this book to read "The Whole Truth? A Case Murder on the Appalachian Trail" by H. L. Pohlman. It's a book on the same case, but in an unbiased and legal view. This book is meant to show the legal workings, but it also gives you a middle perspective of what actually happened, leaving you the decision of what actually happened.