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A review by bubblewombat
Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife by Irene Spencer
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
I've read quite a few books about the LeBarons, but I've been looking forward to reading Irene's books specifically, even more so since I read Susan's book. Both she and Irene were married to Verlan, so it was interesting seeing both of their perspectives, life wasn't easy for either of them.
I said back in my review of Susan's book, that she made me see why she fell in love with Verlan. Now, for Irene's book, I could still see it, but I was so sad for her, because she had a chance at true, monogamous, love before she ever married Verlan, but she didn't listen and ended up with a lot of pain and heartache as a result.
Irene wasn't meant for polygamy, as shown in the book. It might be a bit of a difficult or annoying read for some people because of it. She constantly complains about it, cries when she doesn't get enough attention from her husband, argues with him about the other wives, thinks about leaving, and yet still stays because he's her salvation.
Add all the poverty on top, constant moving to evade the law, popping out babies and the health risks that come with having that many close together...listen, I WOULD CRY TOO!!!
And mind you, she was only 16 when they got together, of course she's going to be immature??? Having a baby (or several) doesn't magically fix that, or the jealousy. I can't say if she would've been that jealous had she never experienced being loved the way Glen loved her, but I don't fault her for it.
Something else that I found interesting here, is that I saw, through Irene's eyes, that Verlan genuinely believed what he was preaching. I'm not saying it's not coo coo bananas, but I felt that he wasn't taking all these wives just because he wanted to, but because he truly believed he could help them. Like, even past the seven he "needed", it didn't feel like greed. But it's clear everyone suffered regardless.
There were some events that were glossed over here, but I believe Spencer covers them in her next book, so it's okay. This one is a bit long as is, so splitting the story up was a good decision if you ask me.
But it does wrap things up for the most part, there's an update on how she was doing at the time of publication, so you don't have to read her other books if you don't want to. I'm definitely going to, though.
I said back in my review of Susan's book, that she made me see why she fell in love with Verlan. Now, for Irene's book, I could still see it, but I was so sad for her, because she had a chance at true, monogamous, love before she ever married Verlan, but she didn't listen and ended up with a lot of pain and heartache as a result.
Irene wasn't meant for polygamy, as shown in the book. It might be a bit of a difficult or annoying read for some people because of it. She constantly complains about it, cries when she doesn't get enough attention from her husband, argues with him about the other wives, thinks about leaving, and yet still stays because he's her salvation.
Add all the poverty on top, constant moving to evade the law, popping out babies and the health risks that come with having that many close together...listen, I WOULD CRY TOO!!!
And mind you, she was only 16 when they got together, of course she's going to be immature??? Having a baby (or several) doesn't magically fix that, or the jealousy. I can't say if she would've been that jealous had she never experienced being loved the way Glen loved her, but I don't fault her for it.
Something else that I found interesting here, is that I saw, through Irene's eyes, that Verlan genuinely believed what he was preaching. I'm not saying it's not coo coo bananas, but I felt that he wasn't taking all these wives just because he wanted to, but because he truly believed he could help them. Like, even past the seven he "needed", it didn't feel like greed. But it's clear everyone suffered regardless.
There were some events that were glossed over here, but I believe Spencer covers them in her next book, so it's okay. This one is a bit long as is, so splitting the story up was a good decision if you ask me.
But it does wrap things up for the most part, there's an update on how she was doing at the time of publication, so you don't have to read her other books if you don't want to. I'm definitely going to, though.