Escape by Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer (2007)

the book was fascinating reading. carolyn is bright, sensitive, and was seriously screwed up from her destructive and abusive childhood, and then in a marriage to a controlling idiot. in fact, the whole town she grew up in are irreversibly brainwashed. the mormon(LDS) church, is a far cry from the FLDS. my concern with carolyns writing is that she often leaves the reader thinking that the FLDS and the LDS church are "cousins", and very much alike in doctrine and practice. perhaps in her mind this is true, because she lived in an alien world, with other brainwashed people who are NOTHING like the mainstream LDS church, which is everywhere and full of intelligent, educated people who encourage questioning and free thinking. carolyn had none of those normal customs and virtues. the tale of the abuse she suffered at the hands of a childs most trusted care givers, being her parents, teachers, clergy and so-called government officials was too heinous and inhumane to be anything but the truth. while reading it, i often had to put the book away because her intolerable suffering confusion and bewilderment made me physically ill. i was haunted that the atrocities she and others endured and are still enduring right under our noses, and society allows it in the name of "freedom of religion". how this courageous lady escaped this diseased and disgraceful lifestyle, with 8 equally damaged children in tow, is incomprehensible to anyone living in a "normal", non-patriarchal time and place. carolyn describes her very real risk and possibly even lethal consequences of leaving her virtual prison in such a way that the reader can feel her panic and terror, while risking the loss of her children to this cult that masks itself as religion. if i sound like a religious bigot, read this book and decide for yourself. i applaud carolyn and the people who help to rescue those enmeshed in this dangerous prison of the mind and soul, and expose this cult for what it is still doing. carolyn is a survivor in every sense of the word. she wrote an eloquent, matter of fact story that will leave you breathless, engaged, and relieved at the long awaited freedom that this author finally has achieved for herself and her posterity.

A great follow-up to "Under the Banner of Heaven". It will give you the day-to-day workings of the cult Mormonism.