A review by chaosisafriend
The House of My Mother by Shari Franke

emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.5

 

Shari Franke is the oldest child of Ruby Franke, a mommy vlogger whose YouTube channel 8 Passengers had more than two million followers at its peak. 

Ruby, who has six kids in total, filmed almost every moment of their lives for content, editing videos in such a way to make her look like a great mom with a happy family. In reality, she was a cold and distant mom who emotionally abused her children. 

Once Ruby met Jodi Hildebrant, things became even worse. Jodi was basically a one-woman cult, touting herself as an expert family counselor, even though her license had been revoked. She charged her clients exorbitant fees for her services and lived in a mansion complete with a safe room. 

Ruby soon bought Jodi’s bs hook, line and sinker. Her children’s lives became hell, to the point that her YouTube fans were concerned. She filmed a video about not bringing her small child her forgotten lunch at school and telling the teacher not to give her any food at all so that she would be hungry. In another one, her oldest son Chad let it slip that he was forced to sleep on a bean bag for seven months. 

Eventually, she and Jodi started torturing her two youngest children. They were found out when one of them escaped from being chained up in Jodi’s house. 

Shari is fiercely protective of her four youngest siblings and does not name them or go into any specifics about what the police found when they raided Jodi’s house. All of that it easily found on the Internet, and I think Shari assumes that anyone reading this book has heard the story on the news and has the details. She does name Chad because he is over 18 now. 

Because of her respect her four youngest sibling privacy, this book is entirely her story. She went to college around the time Ruby met Jodi, but she was still severely emotionally abused by Ruby as a child and then later by both Ruby and Jodi. Her father did not actually abuse her, but he toed the line and didn’t go against Ruby or Jodi to protect his children. 

I went down a Ruby Franke rabbit hole while I was reading this book. If you’re interested in learning more after reading this book – or before for that matter, you can find the 911 call from when her son escaped, as well as body cam footage of Ruby’s arrest. It’s chilling, she shows no emotion at all. There are also several documentaries about Ruby, Jodi and the Franke family

This was a hard book to read but it was very well-done. Shari is unflinchingly honest about her life and what she shares. I chose this book because I wanted more insight into how a popular mommy vlogger could turn into a monster and my curiosity was satisfied.
 

Recommended.