Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult by Faith Jones

26 reviews

bitesizedbeet's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Grief, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Death, Murder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, and Eating disorder

playswithstring's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

This book was tough. It’s hundreds of pages of abuse. I knew what the Children of God cult was about after reading Uncultured (Daniella Mestyanek) last year, but Faith Jones goes so much more into detail about the abuse she suffered. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Deportation, Eating disorder, Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Body shaming, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Physical abuse

graceemacee's review

dark hopeful informative tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Animal death

hookerkitty's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

2.0

It’s so sad how one charismatic asshole can destroy so many people’s lives.

This had potential, but missed the mark. While the first chapter about the history could’ve been interesting, it ended up being so incredibly dry that I almost gave up then.

After that there was SO MUCH unnecessarily graphic depictions of child physical and sexual abuse, and sexual abuse of adults. She didn’t need to go into so much detail; it was wildly uncomfortable and difficult to get through. It doesn't help that she wrote everything in the present tense. She wrote somewhat childlike for instances that happened when she was younger, but also used words that no 3 or 4 year old would use (or hell, most of the people there since they were only allowed a sixth grade education — side note: them having at least one spelling error in the titles of their educational material cracked me up).

I also find it hard to believe she remembered all that stuff in such detail from when she was that young. There were other instances throughout the book that also seemed like they skirted the lines of truth. (I’m not at all accusing her of fabricating her story, just that some instances here and there seem a little embellished).

There was more than one instance where she used a word without telling the reader what it meant. It was annoying to have to Google stuff to understand what she was talking about. I didn’t realize until I had finished the book that there was a glossary at the end. While that’s nice to have, a short definition when the word is introduced would’ve been much more appreciated.

It started to get better (or less uncomfortable) halfway through the book, but then dear god (hah) did her superiority complex come out. Lots of cringey thoughts and behaviors. The end had some stuff in it that I found useful, or at least could be a building block for some of my trauma processing.

I decided to look at her website (prompted by another review) and it seems that she has turned into the people she says she escaped from. Tons of red flags of courses that’ll fix your life with no mention of price, only an email, and she even went on Dr. Oz. Yikes on trikes all around.

I’m definitely disappointed with this book. I’ve always been fascinated by cults, but this went waaaay too graphic about the multitudes of abuse that happened (to both adults and children), with hardly any reflection of how it affected her. She can still be quite defensive about everything. I’m also disappointed in how she went from having no self esteem to rocketing over to pretentious and egotistical. I’m really glad I got this on Prime Day instead of paying full price for it.

Another side note - did anyone else get the feeling that she might be bi or gay? Her portrayal of some of the girls/women were much more descriptive and seemed like she was way more attracted to them than any of the boys/men in this book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Medical content

Moderate: Abandonment, Religious bigotry, Blood, Excrement, Pregnancy, Grief, Confinement, Racism, and Incest

Minor: Police brutality, Eating disorder, Body shaming, Alcohol, Death, Deportation, Terminal illness, Suicide, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, War, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, and Bullying

cailyne's review against another edition

Had to DNF this one - it threw me into a slump and I was actively avoiding reading just to not have to come back to it. Faith’s story is important, but I wasn’t ready for the graphic detailed accounts. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

sara_m_martins's review

This book is far too graphic in the abuse described. 
Plus, the writing style and the form feel weird and dissonant, as the sequence of events goes from pages of different but relatively-mundane life (like building a wall) to extremely abusive and traumatic scenarios. 
Additionally, I think I would rather read a more removed perspective - i.e. a biography instead of an autobiography

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Self harm, Sexual content, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Incest, Animal death, Child abuse, Misogyny, Mental illness, Rape, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Alcoholism, Cultural appropriation, and Drug use

kbweis's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

2.5

i respect that the audiobook wasn't narrated by faith herself, but i think i lost a lot of her tone and sincerity because of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Animal death, Murder, and Suicide

Minor: Addiction

mirandaschnoor's review

challenging dark hopeful reflective tense slow-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Child abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Domestic abuse

Minor: Animal death

ramreadsagain's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful sad medium-paced

I have decided to not give star ratings to nonfiction memoirs.

This was a rollercoaster of hard hitting scenes of child abuse one after the other, so please be warned that this is not an easy read/listen. 

I hadn’t heard of this cult before so this was also a very informative book for me. Faith does an amazing job at portraying how members are manipulated into believing that they are doing the right thing and how difficult it can be to break free. 

It ends with some excellent thoughts on the importance of examining your beliefs, no matter what those are, as well as some emotional passages about self-ownership. 

A good yet harrowing read, absolutely would recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Pedophilia, Death, Toxic relationship, and Rape

Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, and Animal cruelty

viktorsboy's review

I would have liked more in depth time spent with Faith’s deconstruction process. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Rape, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Eating disorder and Fatphobia