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 enlarge | Authors: Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer
Publisher: Broadway
Category: EBooks
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $4.96 (33%)
Rating:  359 reviews
Sales Rank: 4446
Format: Kindle Book
Language: English (Published)
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 432
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 289.3092
Publication Date: October 16, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 things you would never think could happen in this day and age June 3, 2009
Christina E. Parker
Amazing story of a brave woman. I hope and pray that her life and her childrens life are getting better everyday. Excellent read- insight to a life no one would have believe really exists.
 Eye-opening, unbelievable. May 31, 2009
M. Grout (Portland, OR United States)
I've seen the Oprah show on the FLDS community. I've watched the news programs on the FLDS community. I've read other books on the FLDS community. I thought this book was going to be more of the same. It is not! It is a peek into the details of the everyday lives of these families in a way you've never seen before. Absolutely fascinating and, yet, sickening. I was fascinated by Carolyn Jessop's story, and to hear the story from her perspective adds another element of reality. This book explained so much more about the FLDS community than any other program I've seen or book I've read. Very good book, great story.
Well-written book about an amazing escape May 27, 2009
Michelle V. Mcentire (Salt Lake City, Utah)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
One of the reasons Carolyn Jessop's escape from the FLDS was so remarkable is that the community was closed off to the rest of the world. Televisions, Internet access, and radios were not allowed (with the exception of the leaders and those in power), so the members of the community were only given news and information through the community leaders --who, for their own interests, skew the information to make the community afraid of outsiders. Carolyn also didn't have her own money and always had just enough gas in the family van to get her a couple of miles, making sure she was kept inside the community.
The fact that police officers and responding EMTs in the community were also part of the polygamous sect was disturbing. They would respond to a life-and-death situation and ask for the husband of the family to make decisions about care, even if they had to wait for him to show up. These folks would also make sure women or children caught running away were returned to their husband and would find that reports of abuse were unfounded based on the power or influence of the husband. These were huge stumbling blocks for anyone wishing to escape. The final hurdle was having a contact outside of the community to shelter and protect Carolyn and her children from being dragged back by her husband or his cronies. She couldn't confide in anyone in the FLDS because others might "help" her to decide to stay by reporting her actions, and any naysayers were counseled, removed, and/or reassigned to other families. She knew that she'd never see the family she was leaving behind, but just couldn't leave her kids to that fate.
This organization doesn't recruit from the outside, but instead uses women to breed followers that can be molded and controlled. Polygamy may be against the law, but the FLDS skirt the law by marrying, then divorcing and re-marrying. It's still polygamy, but they somehow avoid the court system (I'm sure it helps to have the police and probably the courts in that area as part of the religion).
Carolyn's accounting of her experiences is told in the calm, matter-of-fact manner of someone who grew up where bizarre happenings were normal and commonplace and witnessed by thousands of other folks who also believed their life to be not only normal, but ordained by god. Reading this book made me want to meet and congratulate Carolyn and also do something to help others who wish to start a life away from the FLDS. Growing up in Utah, I heard rumors and saw news stories about "plygs" and I've felt sorry for them in their ignorance and brain-washedness for years. This book was disturbing and eye-opening, but showed that people can triumph even over the worst circumstances. I would encourage everyone to read this book so that the FLDS cult is exposed for what it is: a cult which uses physical abuse and brain-washing to maintain its following.
A Very Brave Woman May 20, 2009
E. K. Johnson (Scottsdale, Arizona)
While autobiographies of apostates should be read with some trepidation, I found Carolyn Jessop's account of her life inside the FLDS community to be very balanced and believable. Her harrowing tale highlights the fact that plural marriage is a breeding ground for violence because of the intense competition within families for scarce resources, including not only material goods, such as food, shelter, and clothing, but more spiritually nourishing requirements such as parental love, a feeling of safety, and individuation.
Personal, but informative May 12, 2009
K. Robinson (Cedar Falls, IA)
I've read several memoirs/autobiographies of ex-polygamist children and wives, but this is by far the best. Jessop incorporates informative and historical bits into her personal tale.
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