The Escape: The gripping, twisty thriller from the #1 bestseller

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Ms. Jessop details her life from being forced into a marriage at 18 to a 50 year old man (barf!) to her unbelievable escape with all 8 of her children (she was only in her early 30's) and how she was finally able to make her situation permanent. I am LDS and confidently can say how very few similarities there are between the FLDS and LDS churches. Glory be!!! As an LDS woman I have the freedom to be who I am and pursue my different interests. I can get as much education as I desire. I have a car that is not only registered but is insured with up-to-date license plates. The FLDS cult made a prison for women and children. The LDS church actively preaches how important and indispensable women are. Tony Campolo theorizes in The Power Delusion that in personal and corporate relationships, those that love least have the most power. His point is that Christians are called to love, but instead often erroneously seek power while jettisoning love. The weakness of Escape is in its terrible writing. Truly, it is terrible; it is, I think, the worst I've ever seen in a traditionally published book, just in terms of repeated failure of craft. I tried to be kind and lenient in this regard, at first. Carolyn Jessop was born into a culture that actively hates and fears education. There is no reason to expect her to be an excellent writer, and why should somebody who's already escaped and survived the misery she endured -- and brought eight children out with her -- have to shoulder the extra life burden of learning how to write well? Jessop also does a great job making it crystal clear how a grown woman could put up with all this. She shows with example after example how children are indoctrinated into believing this is all normal, then with chilling detail, shows how impossible it is for a woman to leave FLDS. That she had a sense of self, and a sense that this was all terribly wrong, is only a small indication of what a strong woman she is.

I cannot wait to read her next book "Triumph". And wonder how she will get Betty "around" and out. And how Harrison's health and Arthur's career is going too.

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But beyond the servile and abusive to individuality "form" is also the occurrence of vile evil perpetrators becoming authority at the "head" in this time and in Carolyn's case.

First sentence: Escape your troubles! Escape to adventure! It was the same tagline Cody had read a hundred times. But he still felt a thrill every time he read it. ESCAPE wasn't just a theme park. It was an Event. A Happening. It promised everything a kid could want, and more. Want to cast magical spells in cutting-edge VR? Done. Fly among dragons and dinosaurs on a real live hang glider? No problem. Eat all the junk food you can stomach and stay up until four in the morning? Go for it. ESCAPE was built to cater to dreams. Whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted it--the moment you stepped foot within the park's door, it was yours. And the best part? No. Adults. Allowed. The dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children.It was nice to have both hints and solutions provided, so I could choose how much guidance I needed. What one puts faith in matters. Carolyn Jessop's story debunks the popular, 60s era thought that "It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere." Ayaan Hirsi Ali takes it farther in Infidel and Nomad, her memoirs of leaving fundamentalist Islam, when she asserts that some religions and cultures--for her those that promote or permit the abuse of women and children--are inferior to others. The book is extremely informative if a little dry in the delivery. This is the kind of book that many should be aware of. This is a factual retelling of Carolyn’s life and life in the FLDS ruled by men. There are lots of other unsavoury aspects to the FLDS that Carolyn did not get into as she was tied up trying to look after 8 children in a horrible environment of bullying and abuse. You can certainly read them online. Warren Jeffs would become the prophet and the FLDS took an even more extreme turn which was supposed to work out well for Warren and his cronies. Escape is an interesting case because it butts up against two conflicting mindsets that I have: that I should be free to judge a book as much as I want to as seriously as I feel vs my expectations should be tempered because this is a book for children. An author should be allowed to write whatever they want - within reason, of course, if it’s offensive or factually incorrect all bets are off - however, there are objective standards I feel a book should be able to meet. There’s also the fact that sometimes regardless of the author feeling like their way is the best way the story could be told I disagree. On top of that there’s also also the fact that depending on the demographic for the book, say 6 to 8 compared to 9 to 12, I might be wanting too much; personal preference makes things extremely dicey when I’m trying to judge under these circumstances.