Beth H. (suburbanalien) reviewed on 10/26/2009 + 63 more book reviews

This is another one of those books where I may not have liked the book (due to the subject matter), but I'm glad I read it. I don't know much at all about this subject, other than remembering some news reports of busloads of kids with indeterminate parental origin and many underage mothers being removed from a compound out in the West, so I did not have any other similar stories to compare this one to. I agree with several of the reviewers that there are many grammatical and other editing errors in the book, but I'm not picky about that sort of thing. I put the book down several times and had trouble getting through some parts of it, feeling creepy about what I was reading, but since it was a true story and I had a vague idea that it turned out okay for the poor girl in the end, I finished it. You probably have an idea of the subject matter from the title and the descriptions, and actually reading the details will seem just as ugly and disturbing as you can imagine. The book is so full of victimized people, broken lives, traumatized children who grow into warped adults, all due to what can be traced to rampant egos and an utterly freakish psychological control that a small handful of individuals have preyed upon a much larger group of women and children who have believed and trusted and feared them. There are many unanswered questions, but in the confines of this book as it is one person's story, I don't expect all my questions answered. I'm glad she turned out okay and found some supportive friends outside the group. I don't know that I have the heart to pursue any more knowledge on this subject, even though I'm wondering about several things - what happens to those boys that they pack up and throw out along the highway to fend for themselves? Was the "blood atonement" she was referring to ever practiced? And I can't help feeling that the man she was forced to marry (who was her first cousin, and several years older than her) was a victim also. I know he was an adult in years, but he had been raised his entire life that he was doing what he was supposed to do to save his eternal soul. He also feared and believed the elders that were telling him that his spiritual life depended on his obedience to their orders, and that he had to find a way to make his marriage work and to procreate. From her description, you can tell she hates him, but she also adequately describes his obvious confusion, inability to cope with mature issues such as marriage and responsibility, and his fear of repercussions when things are so obviously going wrong (as in, she frequently disappears from the house against his demands and eventually becomes pregnant by another man). Those poor kids, you really feel badly for her, and the other people in her life who have been damaged by all this, and it is a huge relief when you can find out that she seems to be okay now, and there are some really nice pictures of her with her family and her children with the man she WANTED to be with. So again, I'm not sure. I'm almost sorry I started to read the book, but having started, and seeing the wreckage and despair of so many lives, I had to finish so I could get some peace out of it. Now, I'd have to say I'm glad I read it, and I feel like I understand a little bit more about a subject I really knew nothing about. Just prepare yourself to be really disturbed by images you'd rather not have (child rape, wife beating, psychological torture, destroyed families, people committing crimes against other people out of fear for their very lives and souls) but if you can finish the book, you'll be impressed by her bravery in standing up to them in court, and in pulling together what she could of her life and being committed to being a good mother to her really adorable children.

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