Search - Escape

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.

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!

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.

Absolutely stunning and compelling. I grew up my entire life hearing about and knowing about the existence of the FLDS (the extreme fundamentalist branch of the mainstream Mormon church). I have a feeling this was because I was raised in the Mormon church and also raised largely in Utah. Seeing woman in the typical polygamist garb and driving past their Salt Lake City small compounds was really nothing but a typical week for me. It never shocked me, but I had also never been behind their closed doors. With the recent national attention given to the FLDS, I started to find out. It was riveting and shocking, but at the same time makes perfect sense to me with my own religious background.

I highly recommend this tale to anyone who wants to know more about brainwashing and cult mentality. While at first it may seem surprising that human beings would willingly submit themselves to this sort of depravity, you have to understand that this is all they know. When this is the mindset you have known since your birth, it is nearly impossible to question or break away from that. The only thing that kept this book from being a 5 star is that I felt she spent far too much time on the minutae of the situation, then all of a sudden we were plunged into something drastic and it was a bit confusing sometimes. Also the lack of personal feelings during much of the book made it seem mechanical. I know from personal experience that even supressed and squashed feelings were still there, I wanted to see them more. But the single most shocking thing to me with this book was just how similar the FLDS and the Mormon church really are. While the more extreme methods of the FLDS are largely exempt from the mainstream Mormon faith, much of the fundamentals of the faith itself are identical. This surprised me and made me think about my own upbringing in a whole new way.

*All reviews cross posted to my Goodreads profile.

Absolutely enlightening. Could not put it down. My husband even read and throughly enjoyed it, as well. We can't believe that people can be so totally brain washed. I'm sure that anyone who reads it will totally enjoy it.

Awesome read her story is inspiring! It is a easy read and one you won't want to put down