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A review by stateofgrace
Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar
4.0
Although this was a really interesting book to read, it's an incredibly difficult book to review. On one hand, it took a lot of courage for Jill Duggar to bring her story to light. This is a powerful story about abuse masking through religion. Watching Jill gain her independence after years of being controlled and manipulated was very empowering.
On the other hand, because this is Jill Duggar's story, there are parts of this story that do not sit right with me. The complete glossing over of Derick Duggar's transphobic remarks is the most egregious to me, particularly because this is how it is addressed within the text: "Derick had been making comments on Twitter, speaking his mind about various topics and making a few enemies."
I'm also unsettled by Jill's refusal to place blame on her parents for how they handled the original incident with Josh Duggar. While I understand that this is Jill's story and that Jill does not blame them, it is very difficult for me to see this from her perspective, considering that the coverup of that incident seemed to directly enable Josh Duggar to commit further acts of violence.
I ended up giving this book four stars. Although there are aspects of the narrative that I felt were glossed over, in the end, this memoir set out to tell Jill's story and it accomplished that in a remarkable way.
On the other hand, because this is Jill Duggar's story, there are parts of this story that do not sit right with me. The complete glossing over of Derick Duggar's transphobic remarks is the most egregious to me, particularly because this is how it is addressed within the text: "Derick had been making comments on Twitter, speaking his mind about various topics and making a few enemies."
I'm also unsettled by Jill's refusal to place blame on her parents for how they handled the original incident with Josh Duggar. While I understand that this is Jill's story and that Jill does not blame them, it is very difficult for me to see this from her perspective, considering that the coverup of that incident seemed to directly enable Josh Duggar to commit further acts of violence.
I ended up giving this book four stars. Although there are aspects of the narrative that I felt were glossed over, in the end, this memoir set out to tell Jill's story and it accomplished that in a remarkable way.