A review by rachreads925
Uncultured by Daniella Mestyanek Young

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.25

Its hard to judge someone's memoir, since its their life. But I will tell you, if you want to really learn about what it is like to grow up in The Children of God - this isn't the book. "Sex Cult Nun" is another memoir of someone who grew up in the group, and is more focused on the experience of growing up in that particular cult / group. Daniella's childhood comprises the first half of the book or so but there is so much that seems to be glossed over, and what is there isn't necessarily told with a lot of detail. The author in my opinion has sanitized her memories in order to shape how she's viewed by readers, while acknowledging mistakes she made only when its acceptable for her to do so. But what this book does well is talk about how group think happens, and comparing cult life to military life. The way both groups shape their members with indoctrination, isolate them, and place high demands on them. Ultimately it gets a 3 star rating from me due to the slow pace, lack of honesty in some places, and just not being super compelling.

 
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