The Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice by M. Bridget Cook, Rebecca Musser

4.01 AVERAGE

kaelynreads's profile picture

kaelynreads's review against another edition

3.0
dark emotional sad medium-paced
sara_beth_11's profile picture

sara_beth_11's review against another edition

4.0
I read this book for the category "Nonfiction Book Dealing With Religion" for the Book Riot 2016 Read Harder Challenge. However, this book is very difficult to categorize! It also deals with topics of feminism and human rights through the unflinching perspective of one woman's lifelong struggle with the abuses in her insular childhood community.

I appreciated Musser's ability to frankly assess the conditions in her fundamentalist church that led to one corrupt man having unprecedented power over thousands of people, particularly women and children. I also admire that Musser's frankness and eye for details is tempered by her emotional plea that readers everywhere do what they can to promote human rights worldwide.

kalebd_2125's review against another edition

4.0
challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
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grassandcitrus's profile picture

grassandcitrus's review against another edition

4.0
Not sure if this is a true 4 or a 3.5 rounded up. I feel like this book didn't know how to end. It was very interesting in the first half but starts getting a little more repetitive and introspective at the end. Plus, her getting into MLMs had me screaming like I was watching a horror movie.

Note specific to the audiobook: be warned that she voices everyone from Texas with the most atrocious Texan accent you can imagine. Genuinely like nails on a chalkboard.
perpetuia1965's profile picture

perpetuia1965's review against another edition

3.0
Listened to on audio read by the author. Moral of the story: Don't put man in God's position.

bestpartofafire's review against another edition

4.0
Absolutely horrifying and really compelling. For the first two thirds of the book, I couldn’t put it down.
captain_morgan_reads's profile picture

captain_morgan_reads's review against another edition

3.5
hopeful informative inspiring sad tense slow-paced

rmmcdowell's review against another edition

4.0
Wow. I love books ripped from the headlines--especially headlines I remember--but this one was haunting to read. Not only do I remember many of the names and stories Musser recounts in her memoir, I vividly remember what I was doing while the events were actually occurring. Musser and I are the same age . . . and when I was enjoying my childhood and experiencing college and love, she was being married off to an 80-year-old man as wife #19. What a gripping story of abuse and survival as Becky Wall trusted and learned to distrust and then learned to trust again. This is a must read!

eamsmith's review against another edition

5.0
The Witness Wore Red
Rebecca Musser

Rebeccas openness and her incredible memory skills were invaluable in putting Warren Jeffs behind bars.

If you’ve watched “Keep Sweet, Pray and Obey,” you should absolutely read this book to add details to the mini-docuseries.

Truly, everyone should. It’s so vital to understand things that happen in our own backyards.

Be aware and always be ready to step up and help when you can.

I’m so proud of the former FLDS members that made it out. What a book.

shelliewass's review against another edition

5.0
emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced
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