Keeping On

How I Came to Know Why I Was Born

By: Gemma Hoskins

Narrated by: Gemma Hoskins

Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Fifty years ago, beloved teacher Sister Catherine Cesnik was the victim of a violent murder that still remains unsolved. "Who killed Sister Cathy?” is a question Sister Cathy’s students, colleagues, friends, family members, and community have been asking for years. One of those people is Gemma Hoskins, one of Sister Cathy’s former students who appeared on The Keepers, the 2017 Emmy-nominated Netflix docuseries that soon had the rest of the world asking that same question, too.

Sister Cathy’s life and death have both deeply inspired and haunted Gemma in a number of ways, and she’s made it her life’s purpose to uncover what really happened on that November night in 1969. In Keeping On, Gemma takes listeners on a journey of her life, from her childhood and her time as Sister Cathy’s student at Archbishop Keough High School through present day. She reflects upon the experiences that have shaped her, including her own experiences as a teacher, grassroots investigator, and fierce advocate for truth and justice.

With candid prose and unyielding honesty, Gemma openly and honestly continues not only the global conversation about the truth behind Sister Cathy’s murder, but also reflects upon how Sister Cathy’s life profoundly touched those who knew and loved her.

©2020 Gemma Hoskins (P)2021 Gemma Hoskins

Intriguing, enlightening & inspirational!

After hearing from a friend that Gemma, the scrappy alumni & grassroots detective from The Keepers series, wrote a memoir, I had to download the audio. It’s read by her, not a professional audio book actor, but I appreciated, as I usually do with memoirs to hear it in their own voice. The audio book gives one the sense that she is sharing a discussion with me one to one, and addressing with candor the questions and concerns I was left with after watching The Keepers. She provides insight into much that unfolded in the documentary and also into her where the tenacity to pursue justice for Sister Kathy and the other victims of the horrific network of predators came from.
I highly recommend this as a companion to watching the 2017 Netflix Documentary or rewatching, as I just did in 2023.
I agree that she has found her purpose and I’m sure the thousands of victims & families she has helped by creating conversations, asking hard questions and exposing evil would agree.
Highly recommend. This story needs to be heard.

A beautiful must read!

Gemma does an amazing job narrating her own book. Hearing her tell details about her life, and how Netflix’s The Keepers came about, mix wonderfully with her giving details about what she thinks happened to Sister Cathy. I recommend this book 100%.

Engaging

I enjoyed listening to Gemma tell her story and found myself giggling and cheering with her triumphs. She has a big personality and a persevering one developed it seems just for the work needed. Go Gemma.

Gemma will keep on seeking the truth and justice.

After watching The Keepers on Netflix I found the official Facebook page and saw this book mentioned there. I was so moved and deeply affected by the Sister Catherine Cesnik and Joyce Molecki murders and subsequent ongoing investigation by Gemma and Abbie. I am so glad I was able to hear this book by Gemma in her own voice. I felt a kinship with her in the Netflix series. I was happy to learn more about her life.. As a Catholic school alumnus from the same time period I f÷el especially grieved for the young victims of the abuse that occurred at Keogh. I highly recommend this book on Audible and also plan to buy a print version.

Remarkable Insight into The Keepers

Gemma's own voice is the only way this audio book could have worked. Spellbinding.

Raw and emotional

Amazingly accurate about the struggles of being someone that is constantly bombarded by health and vision issues as well as the struggle to still be impactful in one’s community and the help for others.

I really wanted to like this.

It’s very painful to listen to at times. This needs to be redone with another reader, Gemma lacks the emotional content needed to express such a horrific story. The book seems to gloss over the important details that made me interested in hearing when I bought this! Instead she covers a wide scope of mundane content way off subject. It’s quite painful at times to listen to the reading at this dreadfully slow pace. I had to speed up the voice to 4x faster which made it a little easier to listen. Every forth word she’d pause, then read again, pause, read another four words and pause. I couldn’t take it! It was a very rough and distracting listen.