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A review by shansometimes
Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life by Amber Scorah
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
What a fascinating memoir! The author was a third-generation Jehovah's Witness who was bought in enough to move to China (where proselytizing the religion is illegal). She writes of adjusting to life in Shanghai and going "undercover" to make friends that she really just wanted to convert. As she meets more and more people, her thoughts and beliefs begin to shift, and eventually, both her faith and her marriage hang on by a thread.
As someone who is deeply interested in reading the stories of people who come from high-control religion or cult backgrounds, I was super absorbed by this story. The way it's written and organized is excellent. It's not every day that we hear from people who were shunned and cast out of their community, and this author describes her harrowing experience coming into her own with immense bravery and grace.
Scorah also raised interesting questions about how we define cults, what we do with the religion we are handed at birth, and what happens to the people (especially women) who decide to leave with no education, work experience, or support. LEAVING THE WITNESS is a poignant, thought-stirring memoir that I think the memoir lovers who follow me (hi 👋🏽) would love as much as I did—particularly if they enjoyed EDUCATED or HOW TO SAY BABYLON.
As someone who is deeply interested in reading the stories of people who come from high-control religion or cult backgrounds, I was super absorbed by this story. The way it's written and organized is excellent. It's not every day that we hear from people who were shunned and cast out of their community, and this author describes her harrowing experience coming into her own with immense bravery and grace.
Scorah also raised interesting questions about how we define cults, what we do with the religion we are handed at birth, and what happens to the people (especially women) who decide to leave with no education, work experience, or support. LEAVING THE WITNESS is a poignant, thought-stirring memoir that I think the memoir lovers who follow me (hi 👋🏽) would love as much as I did—particularly if they enjoyed EDUCATED or HOW TO SAY BABYLON.