I Cried To Dream Again: Trafficking, Murder, and Deliverance; A Memoir

Narrator January LaVoy becomes activist/sex traffic survivor Kruzan in this memoir of her extraordinary life (cowritten with playwright Cori Thomas). Raised in a dysfunctional home by an abusive mother in a community of drug abuse, gangs, and poverty, Kruzan had aspired to break the cycle and become a doctor. Instead, she was trapped by her neediness for affection from a man she met and trusted at age 11, as he groomed her for a life in the sex industry. At age 16, she shot him as he was about to rape her, was found guilty of murder, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. LaVoy’s magnificent performance captures Kruzan’s depression, desperation, and raw emotion during attempts to escape from home and failed suicides and the horror Kruzan felt when sexual abuse and rapes were thrust on her. Just as palpable is the realization of her loss of naïveté when turned over to the prison system, with her confidence restored when the court reduced her sentence to 25–50 years with parole (in July 2022, California governor Gavin Newsome pardoned Kruzan).