Book Review:
A Light in the Dark
By Kathy Kleiner Rubin
4.0 out of 5.0 Stars
This book is about Kathy Kleiner who is one of the few people who ever survived an attack by the serial killer Ted Bundy. In January of 1978 Ted Bundy entered the sorority house that Kathy was living in with other girls from the sorority. It was a Friday night and she was home studying and went to bed early with her roommate, which whom is not named in the book. Ted Bundy enters the dark home and starts thru a back door that’s lock was broken. He starts to try door knobs and gets to the room of Margaret who while she slept was strangled and beaten with an oak log that was taken from the stack of fire wood out back. Bundy then enters Lisa Levy’s room. She was hopefully asleep when he attacked her because she was severely beaten, strangled, her right nipple was bitten off, and she had several other bite marks all over her body. As if that was not enough, he took a spray bottle from her desk and shoved it so deep into her vagina and anus they tore straight through. He then went to Kathy’s bedroom where her roommate and her slept. He started with Kathy, he hit her so hard with the oak log, breaking her jaw, shattering her chin, ripping open her cheek and almost detaching her tongue. He may have thought she was dead when he went to her roommate and began beating her over and over again. Kathy tried to call for help but because her jaw was detached, she could only make noises. Bundy realized she was not dead and went back to finish the job. When he went to raise the log, a car pulled in below their bedroom shining a light on him. this freaked him out and he ran out of the room and down the stairs. One of the other girls of the home was returning from a night out and saw him run out the front door.
This was not Kathy’s first-time surviving death, as a child she was diagnosed with lupus after a long battle trying to get a diagnosis. Then after her encounter with Bundy she ended up diagnosed with breast cancer which she overcome. To say Kathy is a survivor is an understatement.
This book though the majority was about her encounter with Ted Bundy because let’s be honest, I am sure that was the most impactful near-death experience she encountered. This book is about so much more. Its about how to survive. How she overcame her fear of men, how she overcame being out in public, how she was able to face the man who almost murdered her and testify against him. No one should have had to go through so much in a life time but she did it with grace and determination not to let the diseases kill her or a monster who thought he was smarter and slicker than everyone else. This is about winning against all odds.
I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end. I thought it was going to be more about her brush with Ted Bundy but I was glad it wasn’t and it was much more. I hoped to have half of her bravery if I should ever have to face death. The only reason I gave it 4 out of 5 stars is because there was a little retentiveness and some of it was a little slow at times. But overall the story itself was amazing.