Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions below are my own.

I'm definitely a true crime junkie and was definitely pressed to the TV for the Amanda Knox trials when they happened. I have not read her previous memoir but I think I will now. The writing in this book was really well done. She is a very thoughtful person and I felt like she was very raw and honest about so many topics. She touches upon the case but not in detail (which is why I want to read the previous book) but focuses more on the way she navigated psychologically through the interrogation, trial, prison, her release and getting back to regular life. What I appreciated is that she did acknowledge that while she was struggling, Meredith didn't get the opportunities she has had. 4 years of strife has had a ton of impact and shaped her life but she still has one. I really appreciated her talking about social justice reform and was so intrigued by her relationship with the man who prosecuted her. There is a bit about motherhood and some about religion and personal growth but it really felt to me most about resilience and her telling her truth and showing her character with a little more maturity.

Amanda has quite the story to tell. I was hooked from the beginning. The trial, the 4 years in prison, her outlook. Where it could have been so negative and down, she kept fighting. Her message on religion, forgiveness and her work with The Innocence Project really moved me. I now need to go back and read her first book.

5 stars

A beautiful follow-up to her previous memoir about her experiences as a prisoner in Italy, Free is Amanda Knox's thoughtful exploration of her experiences building a meaningful life after her exoneration. She walks the reader through what it felt like to return to her life in the US and adjust to her new post-confinement reality, coping with her notoriety, finding a vocation in advocacy for the wrongfully convicted, starting a family, and perhaps most interesting, forming a connection with the Italian prosecutor who helped destroy her reputation on a global level and painstakingly finding a way toward something like forgiveness. Beautifully written, immensely thought provoking work. Thank you to Ms. Knox for sharing her thoughts and experiences, and thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this in advance of publication.

Growing up I remember hearing my parents talk about what was happening to Amanda Knox, I remember watching the tv movie about the case as well. I was excited to dive into this, but feel like I came out with no more understanding of who Amanda is as a person than before I started it. I liked the look into the justice system and the trials and tribulations, but felt like it was missing something.

Thank you for this ARC! I did not know much about Amanda Knox, and, unfortunately, still don't feel I know much about her. I may go back and read her previous memoir. This fell a little flat to me and did not seem incredible informative.

ARC - What do you do when the life you were expecting to live gets ripped away? That's what Amanda Knox addresses in this book. It's kind of like her own "Man's Search for Meaning."
It was interesting to read her healing journey. If you are looking for the story of her court case and the murder of her roommate, this is not it..... go read her other book. If you want to read about her time in prison and time after her release, this is what you are looking for. It was a good story about finding a new path when the one you were on disappears.

I did follow, vaguely, the saga of "Foxy Knoxy". At the time I was a single mother of 3 and the peril of Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox saddened me, but I wasn't a cult follower at all.

I was, however, curious about hearing directly from Amanda how her life has unfolded. This book really humanizes Amanda. She has the same anxieties many of us share, and in some respects on a heightened level, based on her life experience. She shares a great deal about the Italian prison which shows a contrast with our prisons in the United States. In part, due to her imprisonment, she is incredibly well read.

At first glance, I felt like Amanda had a privileged life and didn’t realize it. When I say privileged, I don’t necessarily mean wealthy. But here is this American citizen, stuck in an Italian prison, but who receives mail almost daily, and has family visitors every week during visitation. She has money on her books. Her family was able to afford to travel to Italy and in some respects stay in Italy for extended periods. Amanda traveled quite a bit as a child. All of these things add up to a type of privilege many would not experience were they in her shoes. As I continued to read, it became apparent that Amanda knew she was incredibly fortunate. She had an uncomplicated and loving upbringing. And her awareness of her situation makes her more enduring as a person.

She truly suffered, and lost years of her life she will never get back. However, she is not bitter. She is incredibly optimistic. She carries with her the mantra she was raised with by her mother, be kind.

She mourns Meredith, although she knew her for such a short time. She acknowledges life milestones she has the benefit of reaching that Meredith never will. But she also give herself permission to live.

One quote I found compelling (there are many in this book, this one just really spoke to me) was: “Part of being human is confronting tragedy and getting through it.”

✨this memoir is powerful. having not read amanda's first memoir, i was not lost or felt left behind at all while reading this one.

✨free is a collection of anecdotes from amanda's life as she details and heals from her time as a wrongly convicted murderer in prison in italy. a story most elder gen-z-ers are familiar with, one that maligned amanda as a deviant, ruthless killer using coercion, a lack of evidence, and false confessions to convict and then re-convict amanda knox and raffaele for the murder of meredith kercher.

✨all of these essays, pretty short in length, lead the reader to the ultimate event in amanda's life thus far after being exonerated. she wants to come face to face with the prosecutor who, against all sound logic, plowed the defense against amanda's innocence.

✨bouncing around from her childhood to her life as recent as 2023, there is an emphasis on who she feels like she was before her time in italy and after, being fundamentally changed after prison. a good third of this book could be divided into her life while in prison, another her life post prison, and another as she mentally and emotionally prepares to go back to italy to see giuliani, the prosecutor.

✨i will not lie and say that i don't remember this whole story play out, that i was someone who was never so invested in the events as it happened, being only in middle school, but i remember seeing the news in my periphery and the eventual infamous Lifetime adaptation of the story. all of which piled on amanda and forced her to be guilty in the court of public opinion. it wasn't until i watched a Netflix documentary a few years ago when i really took in all of the information and realized how horrible this situation truly was.

✨when i was able to read this as an e-arc i was very interested in it, unaware of a previous memoir having been published, and i thought the structure of this book was a little odd. knowing now that there is probably a more standard structure of a memoir out there, Free felt like fresh air to read. it is honest and raw and real, knox really knows how to write and that is evident. i found her mental fortitude fascinating and she seems to have really built a life for herself. it is inspiring to read about.

✨i recommend this to read to anyone who has this vague knowledge about the amanda knox story, who remembers people speculating about her innocence. true crime vultures stay away though, because amanda's story deserves more than the true crime treatment. the way she has been able to cope and move on the best way that she can is absolutely a marvel to the human condition.

Free: My Search for Meaning by Amanda Knox
Anticipated Publication Date: March 25, 2025
Four Stars- ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thank you to NetGalley, Grand Central Publishing and Amanda Knox for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I read Amanda Knox’s first book, Waiting to Be Heard, several years ago and have closely followed her story in the media ever since. Amanda is only a few years younger than me, I had just graduated college when she was wrongfully convicted. I could never truly grasp the pain and hardship she and her family endured during the four years she spent in prison and the eight years spent on trial.

This book was well-written, and I appreciated learning more about her life after returning to Seattle and seeing her navigate trying to live a “normal” life. It was also inspiring to read about her decision to return to Italy to confront her past, something I, personally, could never do.. I’m happy to see that she is now a mother—something she feared might never happen because of her wrongful conviction.

While Meredith Kercher’s death will never be forgotten, it’s clear that justice has not been fully served. Rudy Guede, Meredith’s real murderer, only spent thirteen years behind bars, leaving much of the legal process feeling incomplete.

"Free" by Amanda Knox is a fascinating memoir that shares her intense experiences with the justice system. The book is an honest look at the ups and downs she faced, making it a captivating read for anyone interested in true crime stories. Knox writes in a way that is easy to connect with, sharing her feelings and thoughts clearly. Her journey through such a difficult time shows her strength and determination. Overall, "Free" is an inspiring story of resilience and moving forward after a tough ordeal.

Free by Amanda Knox is a thrilling tell all of her experiences in the justice system. Anyone who followed the case close or who just enjoys crime stories would enjoy.

I’m a huge fan of Amanda, and this book was so powerful and special. In such a challenging time she learned how to be present, to trust herself, when so many would have broken. Moving and important.

Amanda Knox has written at length about her experiences as a wrongfully convicted murderer in her previous memoir, a book she freely admits was written to help defray the crushing debt accrued by her family while mounting her defense against multiple prosecutions in Italy. However, gaining her freedom didn't mean her ordeal was over. Her notoriety meant it was next to impossible to re-enter her previous life. For years, her name and face appeared in tabloids, newspapers, social media and news reports. Documentaries were made about her arrest and subsequent trials. Movies purported to tell her story and crime series episodes created fictionalized accounts of the case.

After four years in prison, Knox returned to America to a different type of incarceration. It was virtually impossible for her to do the kinds of things people do in everyday life. She would be recognized in a grocery store or a bookstore. How does a young woman go on a first date without the awkward discussion about her past, assuming the other person doesn't already know her story and is attempting to exploit it? If she went to a night club, paparazzi snapped photos to sell to tabloids in which her behavior was seen as disrespectful to the memory of the murder victim (something she refers to as the "single victim fallacy")? And who would hire her who wouldn't also be attempting to exploit her name and reputation? How could she be simply Amanda Knox again without all the baggage attached to her name?

Knox frankly and eloquently discusses these ordeals and more in Free: My Search for Meaning. She puts her life under unblinking scrutiny, chronicling her struggles as a "free" woman, owning up to some of the mistakes she made after her liberation and her misadventures. She was an unwilling celebrity, someone who never asked to be notorious, but people believed they knew her, made assumptions about her, tried to befriend her or uttered threats against her.

One of the first people who extended a welcoming hand was a newspaper editor who offered her a minimum wage job writing reviews for the West Seattle Herald under a pseudonym. She could remain anonymous by screening movies in dark theaters, and on those occasions where she interviewed people in public, she presented herself as Emile Monte. (The story of how she created her pen name is reminiscent of Stephen King/Richard Bachman. She chose Emile because it was a character from one of her grandmother's favorite childhood novels and Monte because of a can of Del Monte peas in her pantry. Many of those articles can still be found online.)

The book revisits some of her experience in prison, including the depths of her despair and the people who handed her a lifeline, including a prison priest with whom she could have philosophical discussions despite her disbelief in his religion. Section headings are drawn from Dante—over the course of the decade after she was found innocent she progressed from Inferno through Purgatory to Paradise and beyond. Now she is happily married with a couple of children and working for projects associated with wrongly accused/incarcerated people She has steadfastly reclaimed her personal identity and re-emerged into public life as an advocate.

The most fascinating section of his book is her account of how she reconnected with the man who doggedly prosecuted her, Giuliano Mignini. She decided that, although the man had never relented in his public claim that—regardless of the decisions handed down by higher courts—he believed her prosecution was justified. Still, she wondered what kind of man he might be in private, so she reached out to him, first by mail. Their exchanges, some of which Knox quotes in the book, are fascinating. No matter how hard she tried, she could never get Mignini to acknowledge her innocence or the damage he caused her, but they did form an interesting bond. They talked about her children and his grandchildren. They even met in person in 2019, a private encounter that Knox had never previously disclosed. Although she could never get precisely what she wanted or needed from him, the relationship they formed was important to her and, it seems, to the aging prosecutor. It's a powerful testament to Knox's drive to get past her past and create a new path forward for herself.

Anything that separates people can be bridged through empathy, she writes. Although her circumstances are unique, everyone has lived through their own worst moment. When people approach her to say, "I can't imagine what you've been through," her response is a single word: Try.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for this ARC.

I was aware of who Amanda Knox was & a bit about her story prior to reading this book. This one hit home for me because something like this could truly happen to anyone, it just isn't something you think about. Overall the book is sad, but also very real. I can't imagine how her & her family truly made it through all of this, but it's great to see she has moved past this all & is happy in life now.

Pub Date: 25 March 2025

I had the pleasure of interviewing Amanda years ago. She was kind, sweet, and unremarkably normal. In the best of ways this is how I found her second book. What I found most profound and accessible is how trauma (no matter what the source) changes you and found her words in this area quite poetic.

you know how some kids were obsessed with titanic growing up? amanda knox was my titanic (right along with martha stewart). i devoured the youtube series she hosted, 'the scarlet letter reports' so when i saw she had written a memoir when browsing netgalley i was stoked!

amanda knox's writing surprised me. i knew it would be from the heart but it was also really good. every chapter does try to answer her question "what does it mean to be free?" whether it be a personal anecdote or an analysis.

maybe it's because i've been reading a lot of books centered around religion lately, but what i keep coming back to are the moments with don saulo, and how his kindness affected her beyond the prison walls.

"may your enemies become friends, or if not friends, then fools, for we are all fools at times, and may you find wisdom in the fool's mouth"

Hm yes okay something positive to say... I think she deserves to have her story told on her own terms (even if this is her second crack at it). The fact that her innocence is still questioned is pretty wild. I don't think I'd be nearly as nice or patient to the old man prosecutor who made it his personal vendetta to ruin my life.

Unfortunately the writing was very distracting and resembled a rambling, self indulgent journal entry.

I received an e-arc from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Free: My Search for Meaning
by Amanda Knox

Publishing date: 3/25/25


As I get older I've taken more interest into Amanda Knox and her wrongful conviction. She's less than 2 years older than than me and has suffered through 4 years of prison after being wrongfully charged. I mean..... Can you imagine?!?

This is Amandas second book and she talks about her time in prison and the years following. I didnt  know much personal history of Amanda but this was definitely insightful. She talks about her wedding, the birth of her 1st child, and even her return trips to Italy. The woman returned to Italy to met up with her prosecutor! Talk about BRAVE! I could never. 😮

There were a few spots where my mind started to wander but then something in the book would spark my interest again. I really enjoyed the personal and sincere moments...for example Amanda shared that her daughter was born with a very rare genetic disorder.  She even met up with Rafael when she returned to Italy with her family. It felt genuine. 

I hope eventually Amanda is able to put that portion of her life behind her. But in reality, those traumatic years have shaped her into the woman she is today. I enjoyed learning a little bit about her story.

Thanks to @grandcentralpub and @netgalley for the chance to read this memoir early! I recommend 😊

Summary:
After an eight year legal battle to clear her name of a crime she didn't commit, Amanda takes you behind the scenes of rebuilding her life. How did she do that? What does it look like? How did she move forward from such a traumatic experience? In her own words, Amanda Knox will walk you through it all. From behind prison walls in Italy to all the struggles of living her life, again, outside of those prison walls, let Amanda tell you the good, the bad, the frustrating, the hatred and the healing.

While I knew who Amanda Knox was, I was not one of the many who followed her case closely. There was far more I didn't know, going into the book, than I did know. Thankfully, Amanda spends the Free's prologue catching you up and summarizing the case from arrest to her long awaited freedom. That came in handy, as there was a lot I didn't know.

Amanda gives you a look at her life within the Italian prison she was kept at. She'll share how she came to view the prison Priest as her best friend, despite being agnostic herself. She shares the conversations they had and the far-reaching topics within them. You will learn how she wasn't safe from the suicide debate most prison inmates have. You'll learn how she didn't give in when others did.

Once whisked away, quickly, to finally go home, life took a new turn on her journey. She wasn't returning home the foreign study student she left. Instead, she was coming home a convicted murderer who had been acquitted, though the public's opinion was split. Amanda had to navigate rebuilding a life in the public eye while the public wasn't so forgiving. Making new friends was as hard to navigate as getting used to using door handles was. The vulnerability she tells her story with, in these early days of freedom, was eye opening for me, at the very least.

The rollercoaster ride Amanda's case was didn't end when she was acquitted. The Italian prosecutor was able to have her retried- and reconvicted- of the same crime. Which was nothing less than traumatizing for both Amanda, and her family. Desperate to not go back to the hell of the prison, Amanda shares the plan her Mom had come up with, if her daughter was ordered to go back to Italy. Thankfully, the case was taken to Italy's highest court and she was declared not guilty. This verdict officially put an end to this nightmare. Amanda was free and was stay that way.

I was repeatedly impressed with how vulnerable Amanda was in recounting her nightmare. She was forthcoming with the highs and the lows. The betrayals created by her own naiveté and the ones done from another's weakness. As I read her words, my heart broke every time she was slighted or her words twisted into something that fit someone's narrative. I felt a small letdown with every injustice she had to live through. I was as frustrated and blown away with how poorly her case was handled from the get go and how the Prosecutor brought so much of the public narrative to life.

Having said that, I cheered on the victories. I cheered on her being set free and her case coming to an end. I cheered on when a friend was genuine. I happily read how she met her husband as they built their life together. I was as mystified as her family was when she began communicating with her prosecutor. She was able to be more forgiving than I would've been able to. And, I cheered on their meeting as I hoped she'd hear the very words she deserved to say: I'm Sorry. I was wrong.

I was highly impressed with Free. Amanda is a great writer and is able to relate her thoughts and feelings with the reader so well. Her writing was so clear and thoughtful. How she survived this nightmare I will never know, but she did it with a maturity no adult involved had. I applaud her, her strength and her healing. I applaud her bravery to, once again, retell her nightmare with the focus of healing from it.

Overall, I misunderstood what this book was going to be about. That is ultimately my fault, as I thought it was more about the case. I do find it fascinating coming from Amanda opposed to another’s POV.

Personally, I’m still unsure on the case and that’s my own personal stance - which lead me to not fully enjoy the book as I could have.