If you like true crime this is a must-read for you. I really enjoyed this one. I was expecting more of the book to do with Ted Bundy. This was more of a memoir from one of the victims which was fine. But to be honest that is not really what I cared about. I was more here for the case. But it is still really interesting hearing this person's story and how she was effected by this. Over all a solid read.

I think you can’t truly write a review on something that is like this. This isn’t a work of fiction or something that someone has decided to write just for fun. This isn’t just a memoir of one person.

This is the story that shines a light on not just one voice but multiple voices that have been lost in the shadow of an evil man. They deserve to be heard. They deserve to be remembered.

I think it’s important to note that this also showed how invalidating and harmful it is to the victims that the media and public continue after all these years to push the narrative of Bundy being handsome and using his good looks to seduce his victims. He needs to stop being glorified and the focus needs to go back on those he harmed.

This was an easy and eye-opening read. I truly am so proud of the strength it would’ve taken to write this.

Thank you to NetGalley and Independent Publishers Group for providing me with this ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

When I heard this book was coming out, I knew I needed to get my hands on a copy. For too long, Bundy victims have only been remembered as names on a list, or by the circumstances of their abduction, instead of as vibrant young women with interests, passions and people who loved them. Kathy Kleiner is trying to put a stop to that.

Kleiner goes into many things that have happened to her in this book, beyond Ted Bundy. At 13, she almost died from lupus, and at 34, she developed breast cancer and underwent treatment for that. Years later, she and her husband had to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and she was also once robbed while working as a teller in a bank. Kleiner has been through so much, but she has triumphed, and it is amazing to see.

The bulk of the book does discuss her attack, and the aftermath. Kleiner delves deeply into how hard it was for her emotionally to heal, and how she had to do the majority of healing herself because therapy was never presented as an option for her.

One thing Kleiner does throughout the book that I loved was that she finally breaks down the old narrative about how Bundy was so charming, popular and smart. He was absolutely none of these things, and Kleiner reveals this with devastating accuracy. She also discusses how it’s time we stop perpetuating the notion that Bundy charmed all his victims into coming with them so he could kill them. The reality is he snuck up behind many of them and bashed them over the head so he could drag them to his car. Perpetuating the notion that he was able to charm these women puts the blame on them, not him, and that is unfair.

Kleiner also, at the end of this book, writes a paragraph about each Bundy victim, so we know who she was as a person, and not just a name on a list. She also gives tips to end the myth of Bundy, which was very helpful.

Overall, I loved this book. It was incredibly well written, and I think it’s a beautiful tribute to Kathy’s bravery, strength and grace, but also to all of Bundy’s victims. They all deserve to have their stories told, and be remembered as unique women whose lives should have never been cut short, rather than just names on a list. Kathy did an incredible job at sharing her story, and at giving others who may be in difficult situations hope. I plan on buying a physical copy of this book for my shelves, and would encourage anyone to pick this up.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Coincidentally, I read this book after reading Bright Young Women, another (though fictionalized) story focusing on the victims of Ted Bundy. To read the account of the Chi Omega tragedy from two different perspectives so close together was a lot to take, and I definitely recommend reading them further apart than I did.

I will say, this book blew me away. Kathy shows such resilience and courage throughout her life and I’m so glad she’s lived such a full and happy life in spite of the things she’s experienced. The book was a captivating read.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted ARC.

This is a fascinating look at a well-known case. I really appreciate the perspective this brings to Bundy - the coverage of this case should be focused on the victims, not the monster. I found this book to be captivating and a page-turner.

A great look into surviving the times of Ted Bundy. A truly chilling encounter and great read. A great book for true crime fans all around. I love that this book gives her encounter with being given a "death sentence" three times and overcoming this sentence. A truly amazing memoir. I am thankful Netgalley gave me the opportunity to read this book.

I enjoy true crime from time to time, but the genre has attracted some creeps. People wearing dresses or shirts with serial killers on them, selling vials of dirt that supposedly came from their grave, & so much more! Weird biopics that make killers seem sexier than reality are made & people hop to social media with heart eye emojis. For once we get to hear from a survivor! But of course she is not ONLY linked to Bundy. She has a bigger story to tell. Part memoir, we get to read about her strength. We get to read some truth about Bundy, when the current narrative seems disturbingly spun through a patriarchal lense. This book is important & refreshing. Turn off the true crime podcast & give this a read

*I was given this book to read and review from NetGalley. Thank you to the author and publishers for allowing me this opportunity—review is 100% my opinion--it is also posted on my Goodreads account.*
I have always been very into true crime and the 'hows', 'whys', etc. about the crime. With that being said we're always usually told the story of the killer and very very little about the victims and their families (which the author mentions). I really enjoyed hearing about her life before and after Bundy's attack on her, she is so strong and it shows in this book. She also gives details that I never even knew about the events which was a nice change to the same information each time because you get the full picture and not just what the media wanted you to know. I had so many emotions reading this book, so so many. Kathy has been through way more than any person should have had to go through but still she stays strong and resilient. I will be buying a physical copy of this book because her story really hit me and stuck with me and recommending it to my friends and family as well!

Thank you Kathy for sharing your story, I admire your courage and honesty. I'm so grateful that you have survived and thrived to tell your story and continue to live life to its fullest.

A Well written dive into the life of Ted Bundy, recommended for any true crime fan to give you a glimpse from the other side.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the authors and publisher of this book for a free copy on exchange for an unbiased review. A Light In The Dark, written by Kathy Kleiner Rubin, is the first book written by a survivor of Ted Bundy. This book places the importance where it should be, on the victims and survivors, and also dispels rumors and problematic lies that have been told by the media. This story is also one of strength, as we see all that the author has had to endure over the years and how she works to spread the truth. This is a book that I definitely recommend! Thank you for reading!

A Light in the Dark was in no way a light read. It was quite graphic about not only what happened to her but other victims of Ted Bundy. She felt compelled to write the book after 40+ years of fawning over Ted Bundy to set the record straight–he was not a smart, attractive man who charmed women and then killed them but a creepy serial killer who chose to assault and murder children and women after attacking them in the dark, lying to them or jumping them as they went about their every day lives.

She makes this point many, many times and how important it is to focus on the victims and stop blaming them for believing a man when he said he was a police officer or needed help or simply being the wrong place at the wrong time.

Kathy Kleiner Rubin did survive a lot more than a vicious attack by Ted Bundy–childhood lupus put into remission by chemotherapy, breast cancer in her early 30s, and Hurricane Katrina but seems to be both very aware of all that has happened to her but realistic about her life and what she had done in a very down-to-earth way.

A must-read in the true crime genre, we don’t get to hear enough first-person reports about what it was like to live through one the worst things that could happen to someone. Not that we deserve their stories or it is work they have to do but the worship of these criminals cannot be the only narrative we hear. We need to think of the victims.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for access to this Arc in exchange for my honest review.

This book was horrible !! Not horrible because if the writing, but horrible to know such a "human being" ever existed ! I had only ever heard of Ted Bundy in TV shows as being a serial killer. But knowing he destroyed so many lives and how he did so is heartbreaking. I can think of multiple ways of how I would have tortured him into revealing where he hid the bodies of the victims never found. Though some details were repetitive sometimes, I think this book is beautiful, beautiful in the sense that it puts Bundy right where he belongs, in setting things right about who he really was and the victims who deserved so much more than what they got. I feel sorry so sorry for the families and victims affected. And the author who went through so much in her life.

This is what we need for true crime; a survivor to put the light back on the victims and shed the mythologizing of serial killers. Kathy Kleiner Rubin makes mention in the first few pages that victims have been reduced to numbers and remembered not by their lives but by how and where they died. These women have become secondary to their killers. Kathy is a survivor of Ted Bundy from the Chi Omega sorority murders in Florida.

Kathy writes openly and honestly about the attack she endured as well as the attacks of Bundy’s other victims. These depictions are not for the faint of heart but they need to be this way to humanize what occurred. In most true crime books about Bundy, these women are mentioned briefly before the book goes on to focus on Bundy again. It’s important to fully understand who these girls were, what their lives were like, exactly how gruesomely they were attacked and what happened after. How do these victims and their families move forward? What are those moments like right after an attack? Kathy writes with compassion and strength. It’s a sobering reality to the lore most books have developed surrounding Bundy. She takes the lore of Bundy and breaks it down to tell you point blank this was not an intelligent man, this man was not charming, and was not a dreamboat. He couldn’t make it through a year of law school, he had no interpersonal relationships outside of a girlfriend who tipped police off about him, he preyed on girls who were smaller than him, girls who were sleeping and could not defend themselves.

Kathy’s survivor story is poignant and needed in the lexicon of books on Bundy. The added appendix was a wonderful way of honoring those women and Kathy gives you the tools on how to break the fascination surrounding serial killers. This is a must read.

Thank you to Independent Publishers Group and Chicago Review Press for this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

We so often learn more about the killers than the ones that were killed or the ones that survived. Kathy Kleiner Rubin is a survivor of much more than just Ted Bundy.

In the first book from a known survivor, she expands on her life both before and after her encounter with Bundy and how he was just a blip in her life and her trials and tribulations. She is a powerful woman with strength beyond imagination.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Kleiner-Rubin's story is intriguing, troubling, and an engaging read. There is an over-abundance of Bundy literature. This book is different. She tells the truth like only a survivor can. The book is well-written and will hook you from the beginning. As Kathy endured each tribulation (Bundy was just one of them!), she showed guts and a never-ending will to survive. A Light in the Dark is a fantastic true crime memoir.

For far too long Ted Bundy has been publicized and even romanticized. Now we finally get the long awaited side of the victim. Kathy's story is absolutely inspiring and she truly is the definition of survivor. She has overcome so much in her life and yet she is brave enough to share her story and the story of Bundy's other victims so that we can remember that they were aspiring young women whose lives were taken away too soon.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this arc. This was a very sad story told by a Survivor of Ted Bundy. This book also goes into the Survivors past and the things she has had to deal with. Its a story of survival.

I really enjoyed the book. I loved how Kathy tells us about her being more than a Ted Bundy survivor, having her own struggles beside him.

About the ebook, there are some things that can be fixed. The layout, for example. It looked like a word document turned epub.

Also, the writing isnt the best. I get that Kathy isn't exactly a writer, but she wanted to tell her story (and I applaud her for that), so this falls on the publisher and editors. There are some words that are repeated multiple times on the same paragraph, and sometimes even the same sentence. Also, there were some sentences that were written in a strange way and sometimes I couldn't really understand what they were supposed to say.

I wrote a full review on my Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/p/CxTkSxfvaLZ/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

A Light In The Dark is the memoir of Kathy Kleiner Rubin who is one of the few known survivors of serial killer, Ted Bundy. Kathy and three of her sorority sisters were attacked at their FSU sorority house, leaving two of the girls dead. This attack is ultimately what put Bundy behind bars for good.

Though you may be drawn to this book with the Ted Bundy association, this is Kathy’s memoir so it’s about her life and she is so much more than a Bundy victim. She is also a Lupus and cancer survivor, a mother and wife, a daughter and sister. By telling us her story, she is giving a voice to the other victims whose lives were cut short. Kathy makes sure to name each victim and ties in several of their stories throughout the book.

Kathy also aims to set the record straight about Bundy. He is often portrayed as charming and intelligent, but she debunks these false claims.

I really enjoyed this book. Kathy is a strong woman who has overcome so much. It was interesting and refreshing to hear this story from the victim’s perspective. I hope to see more books written by victims to take the focus off of the killer and give these survivors more of a voice.

Thank you to NetGalley, the authors and publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 Stars

I was never into the True Crime genre, but was intrigued after watching an Amazon documentary called "Falling for a Killer" about Ted Bundy and his former fiancee Elizabeth Kendall. From there I read the excellent Ann Rule authored biography "The Stranger Beside Me" on the same topic. So I was intrigued when I spotted this memoir from one of Bundy's victims who was lucky enough to survive his evil attack.

First of all, this memoir exceeded my expectations. The summation detailed that this Bundy survivor would be "talking" about not just surviving Bundy's murder attempt, but other life-threatening experiences in her life. I wondered if I would find her life interesting in itself set apart from the drama of the Bundy serial killings. To my surprise, I found her personal trials and tribulations quite interesting. We are close in age, so I enjoyed reading about her childhood with its nostalgic references. She battled a very serious childhood illness, survived the murder attempt from Bundy at her college sorority house, a bank robbery at her job, as well as an early breast cancer diagnosis. Her personal story was deftly interspersed with the Ted Bundy saga, including his escapes from prison, her testimony at his trial, and his ultimate execution by electric chair. She also was firm on dismissing the notion that he was attractive and seductive in wooing his victims, stressing how he would attack from behind or while the victims were sleeping. Her goal was to stop glorifying his intelligence or perceived squandered potential and worth. The writing style was easy and free-flowing. I enjoyed this book as another interesting facet in this well-known true crime saga.

Thank you to Independent Publishers Group / Chicago Review Press for providing an advance readers copy via NetGalley.