ESCAPE!

No woman had ever managed to get herself and her children safely away from the FLDS community. Still, one night in 2003, Carolyn Jessop snuck her eight children out of the house and fled to Salt Lake City.

More than a biography, this book details some of the most bizarre beliefs of the FLDS cult. From the beginning it is fascinating in a "freak show" kind of way. You come to care what happens to Carolyn as she describes living with mental and physical abuse and grinding poverty.

In the past I have often wondered why someone would put up with the kind of treatment these women do. If you are 18 years old and your father tells you to marry a 54 year old man, most teens would say "No way, I'm outta here!" Carolyn gives vivid details of why leaving was not an option for her and for many of her belief system. It took insanity from Warren Jeffs to bring her to her senses and scare her away from the FLDS cult.

One of the things that intrigues me most is that some of the beliefs she describes stem from my own mainstream church. The FLDS and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints share a history and only split after the issue of polygamy divided them. It is bizarre to read something that they believe and see where the roots of it came from and also see how it has been twisted and changed to serve someones own purposes. Other beliefs are so completely and radically different from the Mormon church that you wonder where they originated.

This book chronicles some of the FLDS recent history. It leaves me wondering what will happen to those who are left in the community now that Warren Jeffs has been convicted. Carolyn speaks of being "brainwashed" and those in the cult are still in such a state. I believe that they will find a new leader, he will be given absolute power that their prophet has always held and polygamy in Colorado City will continue. Read this book, it will give you insight to what their community is about. It will give you compassion for those who have lived in a weird society their whole lives and are stuck there still.

By Michele: Children's Librarian