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Escape
Escape
Author: Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer
The dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children. — When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had th...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780767927574
ISBN-10: 0767927575
Publication Date: 10/14/2008
Pages: 432
Rating:
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 97

4 stars, based on 97 ratings
Publisher: Broadway
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

Grnemae avatar reviewed Escape on + 451 more book reviews
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.
imapugmom avatar reviewed Escape on + 18 more book reviews
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!
reviewed Escape on
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.
SuzanneB avatar reviewed Escape on
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.
GeniusJen avatar reviewed Escape on + 5322 more book reviews
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.
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reviewed Escape on + 2 more book reviews
Good insight of what goes on but I could only read so much until I had to put it down for awhile. Made my skin crawl to consider living like that...
welee avatar reviewed Escape on + 31 more book reviews
This book was amazing. I could not believe the things these wives go through and why. I read it during the time all that stuff was going on with Jeffs. I could not elieve why they believed the way the did and why, but this book explains a lot. A really good read.
joann avatar reviewed Escape on + 412 more book reviews
Carolyn Jessop was born into FLDS (a Mormon faction that believe in polygamy). She married Merril Jessop, who was very high in the order. She suffered many indignities as Merril's 4th wife. They had eight chilren together, as Carolyn knew that the only way to have any kind of respect was to be the mother of children.
Unfortunately, that didn't seem to make any difference. She was determined to escape and did so with all 8 of her children.
Her hardships were real. I just found the book a little repetitive and I guess I didn't really feel the desperation for her. I am sure that she went through hell, it just wasn't really felt in the book.
reviewed Escape on + 15 more book reviews
This is a fascinating but sad story of how polygamists abuse, control and manipulate women and families. It is not well written, in that they repeat some facts so many times that you feel they are beating you over the head, but other than that, An informative and good read.
lacyd avatar reviewed Escape on + 3 more book reviews
Very good book. Not for the faint of heart. These poor women have really suffered in the FLDS cult.
reviewed Escape on + 2 more book reviews
Hard to put down. Very interesting and such a sad situation to be born into. Kudos to her for her courage to leave the cult with her children and to stand firm under extreme pressure.
tiffanyak avatar reviewed Escape on + 215 more book reviews
Another great read for those interested in hearing the story of the FLDS from those who lived within it. Told by a truly courageous woman, who is the first woman in the history of the FLDS to manage to flee and win legal custody of all her children, her story is a powerful one. Definitely worth reading.
reviewed Escape on
This was a real page turner. Truth is stranger than fiction.
reviewed Escape on + 3 more book reviews
I loved this book. It really humbles you. Common things and rights that we have today that we assume are the common for all americans really aren't and its made clear in this book how lucky some of us are. It also really demonstrates what determination and a mothers love can accomplish. It also gives some insight into a religion (or cult) that most people don't know much about. Carolyn Jessop is a modern day herione.

This is a must read.


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