Book Reviews
September 2010
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Reviewed by Lois Quail
Triumph / Carolyn Jessop (NF)
As a former member of extremist Mormon sect of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) tells of her frightful escape in the night with her eight children in her story of "Escape."
She now comes to the state of Texas after April 3, 2008 when the state, acting on a tip from a young girl who called a hotline claiming abuse, staged a surprise raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a spread of 1,700 acres compound near Eldorado, Texas, to which the jailed FLDS "prophet" Warren Jeffs had relocated his sect's most "worthy" members three years earlier. Merril Jessop was running the ranch for the prophet "Warren Jeffs" while he was in prison and he was also Carolyn ex-husband and a very powerful leader in the FLDS. Carolyn was called here as an expert to help authorities understand the customs and beliefs of the extremist religious group with which they were dealing.
Carolyn tells the harrowing story behind the raid and set the public straight on the damaging misinformation that flooded the media. Se goes over the setbacks as releasing the children back to their parents, as well as the successes all the while telling details of her own life since the printing of her first book. Her struggle to make peace with her eldest daughter's heartbreaking decision to return to the FLDS cult.
In the second half of the book Carolyn tells what helped her gain the strength and determined her to escape from this cult and why women in this cult find it hard to leave it.
It is a very heart breaking story to think this is going on right here in America where we all have our freedom.
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