Glimmer: A Story of Survival, Hope, and Healing

by Kimberly Shannon Murphy

Overview

Winner of the 2024 Andy Award for Memoir and Narrative Nonfiction

A Zibby's Top 10 Book of 2023

A USA Today Best Book of 2023

A USA Today Book Club Pick

Foreword by Cameron Diaz

“Reading Kimberly Shannon Murphy’s searing and vividly told memoir is like watching a gripping work of cinema verité: each scene demands our attention as the plot moves towards its dramatic conclusion. A powerful and inspiring story of suffering and shame, resilience and redemption.” —Gabor Maté M.D., New York Times bestselling author of The Myth of Normal

A raw and heartening memoir of one woman’s journey from surviving childhood sexual abuse to becoming one of the most successful stuntwomen in Hollywood.

“Piece by piece, the on-site medic tweezes the shards of candy glass from my face. I don’t mind the stinging. I don’t flinch.”

As an award-winning stuntwoman, Kimberly Shannon Murphy was intimate with pain. For years, she propelled her body through dangerous spaces—medicating the trauma of her childhood sexual abuse with the adrenaline rush that came from pushing herself to the absolute limit. But as Kimberly learned, no matter how much you suppress your past, it always catches up with you.

In Glimmer, Kimberly details her remarkable journey to the top of her field as a Hollywood stuntwoman for many A-list celebrities, including Cameron Diaz, Charlize Theron, Angelina Jolie, Taylor Swift, and Sandra Bullock, while carrying the pain of her childhood of sexual abuse in a family that refused to acknowledge its reality. In her beautifully written, unflinchingly honest memoir, Kimberly reflects on her past and present, chronicling her path to recovery and calculating the long shadow of trauma.

Glimmer is the story of one woman’s quest to reclaim her life and to shine a spotlight on the dark topic of intergenerational familial abuse. As Kimberly reveals, being strong isn’t about getting your black belt, leaping out of four-story buildings, or putting 200-pound stuntmen in chokeholds—it’s about waking up every single morning and choosing to love yourself, no matter your history.

A heroic and hopeful story of stolen innocence, pain, courage, and survival, Glimmer is an emotional roadmap for others who have suffered abuse and childhood trauma, offering them hope, healing, and inspiration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063228269
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/16/2023
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	245,727
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Kimberly Shannon Murphy is a leading Hollywood stuntwoman who has served as a double for numerous A-list actresses, performing in 133 feature films and television shows, including Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Captain America, The Eternals, The Old Guard, Bird Box, The Hunger Games, The Lone Ranger, Salt, Enchanted, Marvel’s Agent Carter, Euphoria, Big Little Lies, and Westworld. A Taekwondo black belt, she received the 2020 Taurus World Stunt Award for Best Fight in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. She is a two-time Screen Actors Guild Award winner for Best Stunt Ensemble and has been recognized with numerous award nominations, and since 2018, has also worked as a stunt coordinator. Kimberly currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the stuntman and stunt coordinator Casey O’Neill, whom she met on the set of Knight and Day when the two were doubling for the film’s stars, Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise. They have an eight-year-old daughter, Capri. 

Editorial Reviews

"This book is so much more than the sum of its parts. It is a gift. It is Kimberly's offering to readers suffering in silence. It is a companion for anyone who has endured trauma, at any level. And it is a beautiful tribute to the strength and power of the human spirit."  — Cameron Diaz

"Reading Kimberly Shannon Murphy’s searing and vividly-told memoir is like watching a gripping work of cinema verité: each scene demands our attention as the plot moves towards its dramatic conclusion. A powerful and inspiring story of suffering and shame, resilience and redemption." — Gabor Maté M.D., author of The Myth of Normal

“An intimate and vulnerable portrait of the long-term impacts of our most painful childhood experiences, Glimmer is a beautifully written and empowering story of resilience that offers a glimmer of hope for all survivors of childhood abuse and trauma.” — Nicole LePera, Ph.D., author of the number one New York Times bestseller How to Do the Work

"Kimberly Shannon Murphy's journey captures the challenges—with successes and failures—that face a child betrayed and abused by a family member. Powerful and hopeful, this book is highly recommended for anyone trying to understand the experience of a traumatized child and the long-term impacts of early life abuse." — Bruce Perry, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University, and coauthor of What Happened to You?

“I absolutely love this book. I love how it will help childhood sex abuse survivors better understand themselves and feel seen. I love how it gripped me and made me weep with empathy and joy. And I love that I now have such a wonderful resource to share with students who want to understand how people with childhood trauma can not only heal but thrive—even glimmer.” — Richard Schwartz, Ph.D., author of No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model

"A cathartic memoir about childhood abuse and the aftermath....This painful, inspiring story demonstrates that healing is neither easy nor linear, but it is possible." — Kirkus Reviews

"Recommended for memoir lovers and for those who are searching for the path to healing after a traumatic experience."  — Library Journal

"Practical and uplifting." — People

From the Publisher

2023-02-18
A cathartic memoir about childhood abuse and the aftermath.

“The suffering won’t end, in my family or anyone’s, unless we speak up,” writes Murphy, a first-time author and successful Hollywood stuntwoman. “So that’s what I’ll do.” Divided into three parts (“Splitting,” “Spinning,” and “Landing”), the narrative primarily unfolds chronologically. The author recounts chilling details about the sexual molestation she suffered, beginning when she was 2, at the hands of her maternal grandfather, as well as her grandmother’s blind complicity. Writing about an instance when she was in the bathroom, Murphy notes, “It happens just like every other time: a crack in the door…the tasseled dress shoes, stepping through.” In spite of overwhelming signs, including her diagnosis with herpes, the author mostly suffered alone. “The thing about incest: it messes with your mind,” Murphy writes, “and makes you forget who you are, who you were, and what you were meant for in this world.” Following her grandfather’s death when she was 10, Murphy broke her silence by confiding the truth to her mother, who told her that she experienced the same abuse but had only begun to remember. Murphy began to disassociate and became bulimic, and she could not avoid her extensive triggers: “I don’t know why, but especially when things are going well for me—I seek my triggers out.” After years as an acrobat, the author found success as a stunt double. “It turns out every stunt is symbolic,” she writes, “a new declaration that I’m in control of my life.” Murphy cites this as one reason she loves her job: “I sometimes get to be the avenger, rising up to kick the oppressor’s ass.” At 30, the author began to see a therapist regularly, and she describes how helpful “MDMA therapy” has been. Cameron Diaz provides the introduction.

This painful, inspiring story demonstrates that healing is neither easy nor linear, but it is possible.

Kirkus Reviews