Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Sex Cult Nun by Faith Jones

89 reviews

nightmare_maven's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

erebus53's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

This is not a book you want to start into without first being in a good place. It tells the personal story of a child born to a family pivotal to the Children of God, or "The Family"; a cult organisation based on some twisted interpretations of Christian gospel.

There is overt sexual content in the book, and descriptions of children brought up in a sexualised environment, with authoritarian discipline and privations of scarcity and poverty.

I think I would have not understood this quite so well if I had not already read about various social controls and the nature of Domestic Abuse and trauma healing. The descriptions clearly outline the methods that were used to create submissiveness, dependence, and unquestioning loyalty in people whose fundamental rights were being violated regularly.

Honestly the whole concept in such an extreme social context just makes me consider the societal norms and methods of oppression that we have in our daily lives and just normalise.. "that's just how things are".

It's a powerful account, but not really a fun read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Sexual content, Incest, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Child abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, and Misogyny

Moderate: Abortion

Minor: Violence, Cancer, and Deadnaming

beadingrainbow's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Fatphobia

redvelveting's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

I happened to pick this book up for free and it definitely exceeded my expectations. Faith’s detailed and well-articulated recounting of her life with the Family is uncomfortable and very difficult to swallow but also inspiring to see how she gradually comes to terms with the truth and finds her voice. There were definitely moments where I needed to put the book down to process what had just happened. It is not an easy read at all, even less so depending on your own life experiences. But while there were many moments of discomfort, I was desperate to hear that things worked out for her, and hence found myself wanting to read more every night. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Rape, Violence, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexism

sunflowersabrina's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad tense fast-paced

3.5

Very interesting book. I can’t exactly say I enjoyed reading it, but it’s not really the sort of book you’re meant to enjoy. A very clear look at how cults and systematic abuse shape your worldview as you grow up and how you can become attached to and complicit in a system that perpetrates terrible things even while suffering under that same system. At the same time, it shows resilience and the realities of facing the truth about what you’ve done and what’s been done to you and breaking out of a cycle of abuse. 

This book is very focused on the author’s own experience (understandable) and sexual abuse. It is often explicit and this may be hard or triggering for a lot of readers (it was for me). It also glosses over the strong undercurrent of racism within the family and how messed up a lot of elements are like Witnessing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, and Pedophilia

playswithstring's review against another edition

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

growintogardens's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

3.25

I've read a lot about cults and personal memoirs from people in cults, but this one didn't really help me understand the cult itself. The descriptions of sexual abuse are so graphic, it's very difficult to get through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Religious bigotry, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Abandonment

Minor: Bullying, Addiction, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

The descriptions of assault are really graphic. Also, rape/assult continues throughout the book.

pinksy's review against another edition

dark inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

Shocking 
Heartbreaking 
Fascinating 
Harrowing 
Honest

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Adult/minor relationship, and Child abuse

Moderate: Pedophilia

Minor: Abortion

pamelaaaa's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

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