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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
This was interesting and also horrifying. My only criticism is that it went on just a hair too long.
The first half of the book is absolutely riveting as the author recounts growing up in an abusive FLDS Polygamist family. Her father's first wife was a grade A villain. The intricacies of the 'religion' where fascinating and the author does a great job of showing her growth through out the book. At the beginning she is just a girl. She is controlled by her father, his first wife, and as she gets older, Warren Jeffs.
She then 'grows up' to marry the prophet aka Warren Jeffs' dad who is in his eighties, she is eighteen. Ugh!
All along the way we see glimpses of her rebellious character. She often questions things within the FLDS but then explains to the reader how she justified it at the time. The result is that, too a point, you can understand why these people stay in these tyrannical oppressive situations. Literally everyone surrounding them believes the same lies, they have little to no contact with the outside world, and they are taught that everyone outside of the FLDS is out to get them. She never makes excuses for the terrible things that happen but she never sensationalizes the events either. The tone is very matter of fact and it seems she tries to stay as objective and honest as possible.
Basically here is the breakdown of the content in this book:
Life in the FLDS
Escaping the FLDS
Adjusting to the real world
The investigation into the FLDS
Trials
Warren Jeffs' Trial
Reflection
The intricacies and amount of detail surrounding the trials and investigation were a bit necessary, it just got too be too much and was a little repetitive. I understand why it was important to the author, she sacrificed a lot to bring all these terrible men to justice, but I didn't need to hear about each and every detail.
I do have to warn you that this book might make you hate men. It just seems like one vile and disgusting man after another. There were moments that made me cry and others that made me physically ill. I kept having to remind myself that this was real life or that it didn't take place 50 years ago, it was happening NOW.
Overall, the author did a great job capturing the FLDS never being overly critical or trying to justify atrocities, just honest. The author is incredibly likeable and did not fit my preconceptions. Even as a child she was interested in learning and smart. She was oppressed but she was also strong. She was indoctrinated but never stopped questioning. Her story was inspiring but also heart wrenching. She goes there and shares everything, the good, the bad, and the very ugly.
Part of my 2015 Special 50 Book challenge- A Book with a Color in the title
The first half of the book is absolutely riveting as the author recounts growing up in an abusive FLDS Polygamist family. Her father's first wife was a grade A villain. The intricacies of the 'religion' where fascinating and the author does a great job of showing her growth through out the book. At the beginning she is just a girl. She is controlled by her father, his first wife, and as she gets older, Warren Jeffs.
She then 'grows up' to marry the prophet aka Warren Jeffs' dad who is in his eighties, she is eighteen. Ugh!
All along the way we see glimpses of her rebellious character. She often questions things within the FLDS but then explains to the reader how she justified it at the time. The result is that, too a point, you can understand why these people stay in these tyrannical oppressive situations. Literally everyone surrounding them believes the same lies, they have little to no contact with the outside world, and they are taught that everyone outside of the FLDS is out to get them. She never makes excuses for the terrible things that happen but she never sensationalizes the events either. The tone is very matter of fact and it seems she tries to stay as objective and honest as possible.
Basically here is the breakdown of the content in this book:
Life in the FLDS
Escaping the FLDS
Adjusting to the real world
The investigation into the FLDS
Trials
Warren Jeffs' Trial
Reflection
The intricacies and amount of detail surrounding the trials and investigation were a bit necessary, it just got too be too much and was a little repetitive. I understand why it was important to the author, she sacrificed a lot to bring all these terrible men to justice, but I didn't need to hear about each and every detail.
I do have to warn you that this book might make you hate men. It just seems like one vile and disgusting man after another. There were moments that made me cry and others that made me physically ill. I kept having to remind myself that this was real life or that it didn't take place 50 years ago, it was happening NOW.
Overall, the author did a great job capturing the FLDS never being overly critical or trying to justify atrocities, just honest. The author is incredibly likeable and did not fit my preconceptions. Even as a child she was interested in learning and smart. She was oppressed but she was also strong. She was indoctrinated but never stopped questioning. Her story was inspiring but also heart wrenching. She goes there and shares everything, the good, the bad, and the very ugly.
Part of my 2015 Special 50 Book challenge- A Book with a Color in the title
Whoa, this one was an emotional roller coaster! This memoir follows Rebecca’s time in the polygamous cult called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). She speaks about the constant abuse (mostly sexual) in the cult, from her own childhood molestation by her half brother; to her marriage as the nineteenth wife (out of an eventual 67 wives!) to the cult’s 85-year-old Prophet and his sexual demands; to Warren Jeffs, the eventual leader of the cult, who married nearly 100 women, many of whom were underage, and forced his followers to give in to his bizarre sexual demands.
This book was fascinating, and I couldn’t believe how much of this I hadn’t heard about (the events of the book took place only a couple of years ago). I had heard some of the rumors about the temple in Eldorado, Texas, but I had no idea how much was going on behind the scenes. The first half of the book tells about Rebecca’s childhood and early adulthood, her hidden life as a child of the second wife, her education and indoctrination, her first marriage to Rulon, the 85-year-0ld Prophet, and her escape from the cult after Rulon died. The second half talks about the compound in Eldorado, Texas, and Rebecca’s struggle to balance her time helping with the officials there and trying to support her two children and her crumbling marriage to another former FLDS member. So many of the events recorded in this book are horrific, but somehow, Rebecca struggles to use her experiences to help other young girls from suffering the same fate that she and her sisters had.
Read more on my blog: http://newberyandbeyond.com/book-review-the-witness-wore-red/
This book was fascinating, and I couldn’t believe how much of this I hadn’t heard about (the events of the book took place only a couple of years ago). I had heard some of the rumors about the temple in Eldorado, Texas, but I had no idea how much was going on behind the scenes. The first half of the book tells about Rebecca’s childhood and early adulthood, her hidden life as a child of the second wife, her education and indoctrination, her first marriage to Rulon, the 85-year-0ld Prophet, and her escape from the cult after Rulon died. The second half talks about the compound in Eldorado, Texas, and Rebecca’s struggle to balance her time helping with the officials there and trying to support her two children and her crumbling marriage to another former FLDS member. So many of the events recorded in this book are horrific, but somehow, Rebecca struggles to use her experiences to help other young girls from suffering the same fate that she and her sisters had.
Read more on my blog: http://newberyandbeyond.com/book-review-the-witness-wore-red/
I still think that the LeBaron family is more interesting than the Jeffs. It is hard to believe how much abuse was in the FDLS church and that they were so brain washed that they believed that it was okay for a 12 year old to marry a 50 or 60 year old man. yuck!
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
This is the most shocking book I've read. It is extremely enticing. It reads like a novel because the stories are so odd you think it must of been made up. As blown away as I was, there were still some kinks. There are too many side stories or encounters that dragged the story on. I prefer getting to the point. Towards the end, it became all about how she broke down crying basically every other paragraph. I know people don't feel one emotion for a year, but for the sake of telling a story, she didn't need to write all the times she questioned what she was doing when she was trying to help victims. I wish she simplified that part and focused on the victims. (Which I understand did include herself) Anyone curious about power and how religion can control people to do unspeakable things should read this book.
I read this book thinking it would be a lot like Carolyn Jessop's book, Escape. Though I enjoyed them both, this one was not the same. Rebecca Musser has a more rounded approach including her life, the FLDS culture and the trials. This book really hit me. She went into a lot of depth about what men in the FLDS culture (Warren Jeffs specifically) did to women, and girls. She is not afraid to tell it how it was. She doesn't get vulgar, but you definitely know what's going on. I cried at points and at other points I was in awe of what she went through to protect her friends and family. She is very careful to talk about how those things were not the norm, but how it became more and more apparent that more men than she ever thought were involved. Overall an enthralling read if you're not afraid of a few tears.
Not sure what to expect after having read [b:Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs|2659997|Stolen Innocence My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs|Elissa Wall|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1255629380s/2659997.jpg|3340863] but Ms. Musser's book is rather different and in my opinion written much better. That's not to say Ms. Wall's book is bad, just that Musser's went a lot faster for me. Musser's book also described in more detail than Ms. Wall's book did as to the events in Texas.
I wish the book told us what's happening with her and the kids now.
About Warren Jeffs, bad dude. People should read to learn about this monster