Escape by Carolyn Jessop

by ZeroZen 3 Replies latest members private

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  ZeroZen

  Just wondering if anyone read this book I looked at it in the book store and it looked interesting

  From Publishers WeeklySeventeen years after being forced into a polygamous marriage, Jessop escaped from the cultlike Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints with her eight children. She recounts the horrid events that led her to break free from the oppressive world she knew and how she has managed to survive since escaping, despite threats and legal battles with her husband and the Church. Though sometimes her retelling overflows with colorful foreshadowing and commentary on how exceptional she is, the everyday details she reveals about this polygamous society are devastating and tragic. Frasier delivers Jessop's words in a soft voice that develops intriguingly from an innocent and naïve tone into a more assertive and self-confident one that mirrors Jessop's journey. She maintains the same rhythm, but through the inspired words of the text, she really embraces Jessop's persona. The bonus telephone interview with Jessop on the final disc suffers from poor sound quality and, unfortunately, doesn't add any new information. Simultaneous release with the Doubleday hardcover.
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  Gayle

  I read it & recommend it. It made me realize how much worse it would have been to be raised in the FLDS cult than JWs. However, many of her processes of the realizations of the cult power in the FLDS was somewhat the same as my realizations of the cult power of JWs.
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  okie46

  It is a good book and worth the cost of the hardback. It helps me to have a better understanding of hard it is to break free from a cult environment and the inner strength it takes to strike out on your own. Even very intelligent people can be brainwashed and if you don't know any other way of living, after you have left many times you are still afraid and wonder if you did the right thing. Reading how Carolyn also still worries at times about whether her decision to break free was right, helps me to realize how normal it is to doubt your decision sometimes, even when you know in your heart, that you did the right thing by leaving.

  It really drove home for me, the realization of how cults are built by the egos of men puffed up by their own feelings of self-importance, these cults gain strength and followers through the years because of honest hearted ones who yearn to be obedient to what they believe is God's direction, but instead they are mislead, taken advantage of, bullied and their self-esteem and ability to think independently is taken from them until they no longer have the will or strength to escape.

  I applaud her for having the guts and strength to get herself and her children away from that hell. No one can truly understand what it is like, until they have lived it and escaped. I am glad there are people like Carolyn Jessop that will write about their experiences and hope that it will help others to have the strength to change their own lives too.
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  Purza

  I am the middle of this book right now. I am appalled and completely disgusted at what she went through. My boss just read the book and asked me if my experience as a JW was worse than Carolyn Jessop's FLDS life. I said "NO WAY, hers was MUCH worse."

  One thing I did find interesting is the similarities between the FLDS and the JWs. Things like the apocolypse and the fact that they don't celebrate Christmas, the control the elders have over the women. I haven't gotten to the point where she starts to plan her escape.

  In my opinion, the book is really worth reading and worth the money.

  Purza