He chose when they had sex Carolyn could only refuse-at her peril. He controlled the money she earned as a school teacher. He decided where she lived and how her children would be treated. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children and withstood her husband’s psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of his other wives who were locked in a constant battle for supremacy.Ĭarolyn’s every move was dictated by her husband’s whims. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of Carolyn’s heritage: She was born into and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church that had settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border. When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. 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. This review will have spoilers because I’m not sure how to review a nonfiction book without them. After the synopsis, I’ll get into my thoughts.

I recently came across Escape by Carolyn Jessop that was published in 2007 and I thought it would fun to review something nonfiction for a change. I’ve read quite a few nonfiction books from FLDS escapees but I’ve never reviewed any on my blog. All of that brings me to today’s book review! As for the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, while I don’t agree with their beliefs, I see no harm in what they believe because they are not hurting anyone unlike the FLDS. I, personally, believe that Joseph Smith was a fraud and the FLDS is a cult. In 1890, however, polygamy was made illegal and since then only fundamentalists practice it. Joseph Smith also claimed that it was God’s will for everyone to practice polygamy. The Mormon church as a whole was started by Joseph Smith in 1830 after he claimed to have had a vision from an angel. The main difference between the FLDS and typical Mormons is their belief in polygamy. If you’re not familiar with what that is, it’s a “church” that is an off shoot of the mainstream Mormon religion. I have been interested in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the FLDS, for a very long time.

Escape by carolyn jessop summary