Reviews

Beyond Belief: The Secret Lives of Women in Extreme Religions by Elise Glassman, Melanie Hoffert, Nikki Smith, Pamela Helberg, Erin Seaward-Hiatt, Julia Scheeres, Caitlin Constantine, Carolyn S. Briggs, Cami Ostman, Lucia Greenhouse, Elizabeth Taylor-Mead, Colleen Haggerty, Susan Tive, Naomi J. Williams, Leila Khan, Joshunda Sanders, Mary Johnson, Kyria Abrahams, Valerie Tarico, Donna Johnson, Leah Lax, Grace Peterson, Elise Brianne Curtin, Huda Al-Marashi, Stephanie Durden Edwards, Yolande Brener

birdbrainbooks's review

3.0

A high 3.5 - I feel the reviews sorely undersell this little collection of stories. If it piques your interest you should definitely give it a read. The stories all differ and all represent various stages of being engrossed in various intense expressions of religion.

kpasteka's review

4.0

This book was not what I expected from the title but an interesting collection of vignettes from women who left various extreme religions. They were little slices of life about events that lead up to them joining an extreme religion, life in their religion, disillusionment with their religion, or life after leaving an extreme religion. I would have liked to see more.

*I receive a free copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway, all opinions are my own.*

coralrose's review

3.0

This was good, although they played a little fast and loose with the term extreme.

I definitely identified with parts of this, and I enjoyed the vignettes from other women's team.

sherylk's review

3.0

This ended up on my reading list because I had read an excerpt in some other publication. It was ok. Each chapter was short, just a few pages, and told the story of a woman in an "extreme" religion, from Orthodox Jewry to Mormonism. While I liked many of the stories, the editing was uneven, so some were much more multi-dimensional than others. I applaud each of the women for sharing her story, but wish the writing was more consistent and that a clearer theme arose across all the memoirs.