Helpful Score: 23
The subject matter of this book made it one of the most difficult and yet most compelling to read I have ever encountered. It is almost impossible to believe that there are so many women and children in this country being "brain-washed" and so controlled in the name of religion. Women and children who are living daily with emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Abuse that would never be tolerated by most women. Denying food to children in order to punish the mother, sleep deprived children forced to endure long hours of middle of the night prayer, beatings by the other "mothers" in the home. Hard to read and yet at the same time, a hard to put down book.
The suffering that Carolyn endured reduced me to tears and yet made me cheer for her, for the courage she had to reject a lifetime of teachings in order to protect her children.
The suffering that Carolyn endured reduced me to tears and yet made me cheer for her, for the courage she had to reject a lifetime of teachings in order to protect her children.
Helpful Score: 19
Carolyn Jessop's book gives readers an interesting view inside Warren Jeff's cult. It tells of a world where women and children are seen as property and how people can be brainwashed when they are isolated from the rest of society. Jessop is a very courageous woman. Excellent book!
Helpful Score: 17
An excellent book by an amazing woman who managed to keep her sense of self and her sanity under miserable conditions of life, to fight back in her own way against the unfairness and sheer hatefulness of her husband and some of her "sister wives" and others in the family, see through and cleverly deal with Warren Jeffs, and eventually escape from the polygamous community, taking her eight children with her. It is amazing what she had to go through to get proper medical treatment for one of her children who had a life-threatening illness, with her husband (amazingly) hindering all her efforts, but she accomplished that, too.
Jessops, although justifiably angry (and I was angry, too, reading of her trials), does not come across as at all petty and bitter, but as a person of ability and character.
Jessops, although justifiably angry (and I was angry, too, reading of her trials), does not come across as at all petty and bitter, but as a person of ability and character.
Helpful Score: 10
Suspenseful, harrowing tale of one woman's desperate escape from an abusive polygamous cult. Captivating and shocking. Hard to believe that the community of Colorado City, AZ, and the FLDS exist within our national borders. I could not put this book down.
Helpful Score: 9
This was a great story of strength from a woman who has suffered more than anyone I know. Married to a man of 51 when she was only 18, Carolyn Jessop became the fourth wife of a polygamist in the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints).
I applaud and commend Ms. Jessop for the bravery that she showed when she literally ran away from everything she had once believed in to protect and save her eight children.
This is a truly inspiring story that anyone will do well to read, but it will appeal especially to those who have been, or still are, members of any type of religious cult.
I applaud and commend Ms. Jessop for the bravery that she showed when she literally ran away from everything she had once believed in to protect and save her eight children.
This is a truly inspiring story that anyone will do well to read, but it will appeal especially to those who have been, or still are, members of any type of religious cult.
