Reviews

This is a difficult book to review because I feel like it was two books in one. I understand the thread connecting her time in the Children of God cult and her time in the U.S. military, but I felt that the Children of God section was incredibly well thought out, incredibly nuanced, and properly disclaimed, while the section about the military was absolutely not. Before I continue on this review, I would like to state that I unequivocally believe Young in her account of her experiences and I am sorry for the things she has had to endure at the hands of violent men. No person, and especially no child, should ever be treated the way she has been.

The story that specifically bothered me in the military section was the one where they noticed when they were walking into a trap because there were no women and children around the road leading into the village. The men in the squad didn't notice, but the woman (Young herself) did and it "saved lives" because her squad turned around and went back home. This was told in the light of women being powerful and having a unique perspective to bring to normally all-male squads, solidifying the program of having women in combat and securing her specific spot with this squad. It was harrowing to me how much focus was put into being glad no one on her squad died and how much focus was not put on the thousands of Afghan lives needlessly ended by the military.

The connection between the cult and the military felt hollow to me because there was a lack of acknowledgement of the things that actually make the military a cult (the propaganda, the normalization of violence, the groupthink, etc). The things described by Young were more akin to a boys club, which is understandably bad, but I think the larger point is lost when there is no reckoning with the atrocities the US military has been responsible for, especially in the Middle East and especially in Afghanistan and Iraq.