So I finished reading, Escape by Carolyn Jessop earlier this week and definitely wanted to share my thoughts.

I usually do not read the Preface in beginning of books but there was something about Escape that made me read it and it really reeled me in. Now about the book…

All throughout the book, Carolyn holds your attention with such great detail of everything she writes about. This book is definitely a page turner and did not leave my hands until I finished it all.

I’ve heard that many who have enjoyed this book also felt it had too much history and not enough of the present. Although I love that Carolyn really brings the reader to the core, the basic signs that her polygamist culture was screwed up that she could not see as a child and later on through life. It is also important to know the history of polygamy to know how it has evolved, to see just where it all went wrong.

There is no doubt that this true story is extremely depressing and terribly frustrating to read about, but I am so glad that I have read this book. Carolyn exposes not only her husband, but Warren Jeffs, both of which are an example of hundreds of evil men in the polygamist community just like them. Back to the detail, because of the horrifying experience Carolyn was in, those details (big and small) will never die and that is what really brings this book to life. There is so much, there are so many memories from not only her marriage but childhood and even after the escape, it will blow your mind. Just when you think you have been disturbed by one practice, belief, and memory Carolyn shares of the polygamist cult she was part of, she shares something else that is worse.

Before her escape, she writes about her struggles with childbirth, and her 2 youngest who needed special care and needed to get better before the escape which only makes the reader think “God had I known about her struggle I would have been there in a heartbeat.” Towards the end, she does talk about the custody battle and the aftermath of the escape. There are also a few pictures shared in the book of her family which was great to have, to see who these people are. There was too much repetition when it came to the role of the wives, the unwritten rules, competition, and relationships among them, but other than that, this book deserves 5 Stars.