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Book Review of Escape

Escape
stef140 avatar reviewed on + 28 more book reviews


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.