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311 reviews for:
The Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice
M. Bridget Cook, Rebecca Musser
4.01 AVERAGE
311 reviews for:
The Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice
M. Bridget Cook, Rebecca Musser
4.01 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced
This book is incredibly thorough and follows the path of Rebecca Musser as she grows up within the FLDS. A young wife to Rulon Jeffs, she certainly has a disturbing story to tell. While this is a long read, it gives a lot of details on a long-lasting cult within the United States and Musser did a great deal to do her part. While some of the portions of the book have to do more with Musser's personal life, I believe that is equally important for the reader to hear about and overall she holds close to the point.
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Rebecca grew up believing what she was told to believe. Polygamy was the correct way of life. Modesty was connected to your morality. The outside world was dangerous. And the Prophet knew best. But when as a teenager she became the 19th wife of the 85 year old FLDS prophet, Rulon Jeff's, her eyes began to be opened to the suffering and lies all around her. Although she escaped, she was pulled back into the church's orbit to protect other girls from the witness stand against Warren Jeffs. Then she was instrumental in helping Texas authorities shut down the Yearning for Zion Ranch and the stronghold the FLDS had built there.
This is BY FAR the best escape memoir I have ever read and I have read quite a few. Not only because Rebecca's story is so intense, but the way she is willing to share intimate parts of her pain with the reader is so tender and also so eye opening. She does not make her life a spectacle for entertainment, rather she uses her life experiences and the beliefs she has held at different points to illustrate how this abuse in the FLDS church has been allowed to be perpetuated and how she then was able to use her experiences and knowledge to fight against it.
If you have any interest at all in this kind of book and you haven't read it yet, I encourage you to pick it up. I don't think you will regret it.
Wow! Rebecca’s strength of character and conviction was incredible. With all that she went through within the FLDS and what they put her through once she left leaves me amazed at how she survived. She still had so much love for the people that she grew up with and only wanted what was best for them. What an impressive story of survival.
This was an incredible story of the author's bravery in helping to take down the leaders of the FLDS at Yearning for Zion, but it trails into wanting to be a self-help book instead of sharing the story.
(SPOILER) She also wants to explain away her ex-husband's bad behavior by blaming his upbringing, but takes down men at their prosecutions for the exact same reasoning which I found strange. There are a lot of vague mentions of things that happen, like her brother Cole's illness, but she never explains what happens. She also expects the reader to remember all the members of her huge family by name, but there are literally hundreds of people mentioned so it is hard to keep up with every person.
(SPOILER) She also wants to explain away her ex-husband's bad behavior by blaming his upbringing, but takes down men at their prosecutions for the exact same reasoning which I found strange. There are a lot of vague mentions of things that happen, like her brother Cole's illness, but she never explains what happens. She also expects the reader to remember all the members of her huge family by name, but there are literally hundreds of people mentioned so it is hard to keep up with every person.
***TRIGGERS*** sexual assault, forced marriage, child abuse, child molestation
This book is a detailed and interesting look into the life of a woman who was raised in the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). Rebecca was forced into marriage with the self-declared profit of the church, Rulon Jeffs, father of Warren Jeffs.
After escaping the FLDS and starting her life outside of the religion, Rebecca testified over twenty times against members of the FLDS, most notably Warren Jeffs, helping put men who condoned and forced both child marriages and child sexual assaults in prison.
This book is not for the faint of heart - it's really difficult to read about the many abuses against the innocent young girls born into the FLDS. Women/girls are treated like a commodity, forced to married old men who have status in the church so that their parents can gain status. Rulon Jeffs was in his late 80s/early 90s marrying teenage girls who were forced to be affectionate and sexually active with him. I just literally cannot imagine.
The first half (ish) of the book is dedicated to Rebecca's childhood up until she is about 21/22. The second half focuses on the legal process and the investigation that occurred into the FLDS. I will say that although I read this on audio, I wouldn't recommend it to others. I didn't enjoy the narration and when she did a Texan accent (for a police officer) it made me cringe it was so bad. I could barely stand to listen to those parts.
This book is a detailed and interesting look into the life of a woman who was raised in the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). Rebecca was forced into marriage with the self-declared profit of the church, Rulon Jeffs, father of Warren Jeffs.
After escaping the FLDS and starting her life outside of the religion, Rebecca testified over twenty times against members of the FLDS, most notably Warren Jeffs, helping put men who condoned and forced both child marriages and child sexual assaults in prison.
This book is not for the faint of heart - it's really difficult to read about the many abuses against the innocent young girls born into the FLDS. Women/girls are treated like a commodity, forced to married old men who have status in the church so that their parents can gain status. Rulon Jeffs was in his late 80s/early 90s marrying teenage girls who were forced to be affectionate and sexually active with him. I just literally cannot imagine.
The first half (ish) of the book is dedicated to Rebecca's childhood up until she is about 21/22. The second half focuses on the legal process and the investigation that occurred into the FLDS. I will say that although I read this on audio, I wouldn't recommend it to others. I didn't enjoy the narration and when she did a Texan accent (for a police officer) it made me cringe it was so bad. I could barely stand to listen to those parts.
Fascinating story, and Becky Musser was really brave to tell it (and to live it!), but I had some problems with the book. I'm not a nonfiction reader AT ALL, and as much as I want to read memoirs and autobiographies, I never like them. A couple of problems for me. I have a really lousy memory myself, but I can't imagine that the details remembered in this book, without a journal or diary to refer to, could be remembered truly. Also, I realize that Ms. Musser is not a writer, but she did have help .... I found the writing repetitive, pretty simplistic, and boring. The author, herself, read the book, which in a way was really good, but after awhile her awkward pauses between words in weird places really bugged me. I'm too picky, I guess. My heart aches for her and all the women that are in their situation, and I'm really glad I got to hear her story. However, I found a Dateline episode about this whole story which I found much more interesting and concise.
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
“But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself and, by heavens I tell you, it had gone mad.”
― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
The pain. The abuse. The twisted words and behavior. Warren Jeffs and the men who followed him were simply horrible. And evil. And wrong. But they manipulated others with words. Words that had a modicum of truth, but mostly were twisted malice and lies.
Reading this book, which is the story of a survivor who finds the strength to stand up and speak truth against her abusers, was both an experience in the triumph of good over evil, and a deep fall into the heart of darkness.
“The mind of man is capable of anything.”
― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Truly our minds are powerful. It is up to us as to whether the power will be to love and help others or to destroy others in a grab for fleeting power, riches, and fame. Seriously this book was disturbing because the Heart of Darkness and Lord of the Flies themes really do play out around us every day.
― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
The pain. The abuse. The twisted words and behavior. Warren Jeffs and the men who followed him were simply horrible. And evil. And wrong. But they manipulated others with words. Words that had a modicum of truth, but mostly were twisted malice and lies.
Reading this book, which is the story of a survivor who finds the strength to stand up and speak truth against her abusers, was both an experience in the triumph of good over evil, and a deep fall into the heart of darkness.
“The mind of man is capable of anything.”
― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Truly our minds are powerful. It is up to us as to whether the power will be to love and help others or to destroy others in a grab for fleeting power, riches, and fame. Seriously this book was disturbing because the Heart of Darkness and Lord of the Flies themes really do play out around us every day.
Fantastic insight from the author into her life growing up and breaking free from the FLDS. Highly recommend audiobook form. Solid 4.5.