Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Counting the Cost by Derek Dillard, Craig Borlase, Jill Duggar

9 reviews

rideauriverreads's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Child death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Minor: Death and Kidnapping

kyriannaj's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Miscarriage, Rape, and Pandemic/Epidemic

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

   A memoir from one of the Duggar children and her journey from a child on reality TV to adulthood.
    I feel like she went WAY too easy on her parents. She might not want to go too hard on them because of legal proceedings and her relationship with her siblings. But her parents completely brainwashed her, and she overlooked much of that in this book. As well as not getting much into how IBL is a cult, she mentioned it but didn't get into it much.
    This book was a bit surface-level. I hope she's able to work through more therapy. It was quite rage-inducing, at the Duggar parents and the church book. Her Dad is the worst! He's an expert manipulator. 

Narrator Rating: 3 stars
  I like that she read her memoir, but her voice was easy to get bored by.

 Extra ratings:  Fluff-NA  Heartfelt-3/5   Helpful-2/5    Horror-NA   Inspiration-NA   
Love aka Romance-NA  Mystery-NA    Predictability-NA  Spice-NA   Suspense-NA   Tear- 2.5/5  Thrill-NA   Humor-NA

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Incest, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Vomit, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

andiapfel's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

Growing up, I had heard of the Duggar family in passing but never knew much more than the fact that they were a Christian family who had a tv show. My first real exposure to the family was a YouTube video of two Christian women interviewing Jinger around the time Shiny Happy People came out, but I think they focused more on Gothardism and the Deconstruction movement than the show.  So earlier this week when I happened upon a podcast of Jill and her husband discussing the show and what her life was like, it was all new to me. I’ve never been one for autobiographies, but I decided to give it a try and it had me hooked right from the beginning. The way she talked about her childhood, how the show slowly took over their lives, and many of the heavier  events that occurred was honest while still being respectful of the people involved. I especially appreciated the way she handled her faith journey, emphasized her prayer life, and highlighted her struggle to reconcile with family. I also thought the Author’s Note about “what this book is not” was a nice touch, with the analogy about roses and thorns being able to coexist, and the highs not invalidating the lows (and vice versa). Overall, it was both an informative and engaging read. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, and Pregnancy

littleredwinter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

Slowly and steadily Jill Duggar and her ghostwriter weave together a narrative that will be heart-wrenchingly familiar to those with experience in high control religion. It’s a look behind the curtain at the Duggars specifically and a commentary on the broader impact of the IBLP, high control religion, and children as content. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse, Incest, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Minor: Cancer, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Death of parent

Jill talks in depth about violence she witnessed when living in El Salvador and the trauma she endured because of the media coverage of her brother Josh’s pedophilia and past sexual abuse of his sisters, Jill also describes her difficult first and second pregnancies and her three emergency c-sections in graphic detail

maeverose's review against another edition

I’m not giving this book a rating, partly because it doesn’t feel right and partly because, as an agender agnostic leftist who dabbles in witchcraft, I have vastly different views from Jill Duggar, and trying to fairly put a rating to a book written by someone with her views gives me the ick tbh.

I’m typically anti-celebrity memoir, but wanted to read this because I remember half-watching the show with my mom  when I was little, and to be honest was just curious what Jill had to say about having grown up in a cult. I hadn’t kept up with anything past when I watched the show as a kid, so there was a lot I didn’t know about until reading this book, and I wasn’t even sure where she sat religiously/politically at this point before going into the book, but after reading it it’s clear that she’s still a conservative christian. But most people probably already knew that.

It’s tough to review a book like this, because I haven’t lived her life, and it’s not for me to decide how she or anyone else chooses to deal with their trauma or whether or not they should stay in contact with or try to fix their relationship with their abusers. I’m happy she was able to escape IBLP, and stand up for herself against her parents and start her healing process, but it’s clear she has farther to go, and I really hope she’s able to continue the process. From my perspective Jill’s story is far more disturbing than she seems to be framing it. I struggle to understand how she can describe in detail the abuse her father in particular did to her and in the next sentence say “I love Pops, I just wish ___”. It’s mind boggling to me. She talks about them like they’re kind people who just didn’t do a great job at parenting, rather than the incredibly controlling, abusive cult members that they were and are. Abuse doesn’t have to look like shouting and physical violence. What she went through was absolutely abuse but she never names it as such. To me it read like she’s not yet out of the brainwashing her parents put her through. It’s sad to see. Part of me wonders if her being gentle towards her parents is a front for the sake of avoiding conflict. I doubt it though.

“I wanted to hide. I wanted everything to go away. I didn’t want to have to pour concrete around my heart in an attempt to shield me from the blast.” That’s not a normal reaction you’d have to a parent whom you love showing up at your house.

The whole pants story was so ridiculous it’s comical. It’s literally fabric.. That you put on your body… I have no words

I already hated reality TV before reading this, but wow. It’s so mind boggling to me how people (the producers and the viewers of these shows) treat people’s lives and people’s trauma as entertainment. I will never understand how they don’t even seem to think about the real person living that life and that trauma. I strongly disagree with Jill Duggar’s views on a lot of things but, especially regarding the S/A leak, no victim of abuse deserves to go through something like that. I sincerely hope that the release of this book might finally give the ones responsible for leaking that what they deserve.

There are numerous content warnings to give this book but the main ones - aside from intense religious bigotry and being raised in a cult with controlling parents - is the sexual assault Jill and some of her sisters went through (committed by her brother Josh).  The actual assault is never recounted, but there is frequent mention of the aftermath throughout the book and it was upsetting to read. There is also a moment where Jill describes the very traumatic birth of her second son, with little warning before hand. This is described in more detail. If either of those are especially upsetting to you, please go in prepared.

In conclusion, it was very weird reading this book from my agnostic perspective, through the lens of a conservative christian talking about her even more conservative christian upbringing after partially but not fully breaking out of that set of beliefs…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cancer, Incest, Infertility, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Child death, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Murder

The medical trauma is birth related. A large portion of this book is recounting the experience of growing up in a religious cult with abusive parents, and the parts that aren’t still show the sustained trauma from that upbringing, in way that’s clear the author is still not fully out of that brainwashing.

sariereads's review against another edition

challenging emotional medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Gaslighting

Minor: Body shaming, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Kidnapping

kelleywithanextrae's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Cancer, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

rat_girly's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

I found this memoir really insightful and reflective. I have almost no prior knowledge of the Duggar family, but finished the book feeling proud of Jill for all her growth and progress she’s made. Some parts were glossed over - like the Tweets from Derick which I later found out were transphobic - which was disappointing but not surprising. However, I feel hopeful that Jill has the played a massive part in breaking the cycle of abuse and manipulation for her children and their future generations to come. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Incest, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, and Colonisation

Minor: Death, Miscarriage, Vomit, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Alcohol