Glimmer: A Story of Survival, Hope, and Healing

Written by Kimberly Shannon Murphy

Narrated by Kaitlin Olson

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: May 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9780063228290

Kimberly Shannon Murphy

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. 

Reviews for Glimmer

[Fam M · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The book is well-written and the narrator was very good. But there were many times I had to fill in the blanks, the writer was selective on the extent of what was shared making it hard for those who will want to use her story for healing.

[Laura · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Thank you for sharing your story. May it embolden others suffering in silence to share theirs.

[Maëlle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have never left a review here before. I read many books on Scribd that made a big impression on me but I reckon this one is special. I cried so much hearing her story of survival and hope. It’s beautiful and painful in the same time. I could not put it down. Thank you for being so brave and sharing your traumas with the world. Keep on shining your light.