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A review by crownofsage
Breaking Free: How I Escaped Polygamy, the FLDS Cult, and My Father, Warren Jeffs by Rachel Jeffs
challenging
emotional
informative
slow-paced
2.75
I fell bad giving a memoir such a low rating, but the rating is of the book and quality of writing, NOT of her life story. The story itself was compelling and consistently horrifying. However, the style of writing was very dry and boring to me. Sometimes the monotony seemed to play into the content of the book (endless days where fun, affection, games, etc were banned and life was endless chores and loneliness). But most of the book was a struggle to get through.
In addition, the first ~80 pages of the book contains fairly graphic CSA content about the author and her father. It’s an important part of the story for sure, but I felt like this section (many chapters) was uncomfortably long, and not particularly well written either.
Overall, I drudged through trying to get to the end to see her talk about what life was like after escaping. I was very disappointed to see that the book ends only a couple short pages after her escape and doesn’t get into her recovery or growth from that point forward at all.
In addition, the first ~80 pages of the book contains fairly graphic CSA content about the author and her father. It’s an important part of the story for sure, but I felt like this section (many chapters) was uncomfortably long, and not particularly well written either.
Overall, I drudged through trying to get to the end to see her talk about what life was like after escaping. I was very disappointed to see that the book ends only a couple short pages after her escape and doesn’t get into her recovery or growth from that point forward at all.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Incest, and Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Rape, Miscarriage, and Medical content