A review by knitwitofthemonth
Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
2.5
This was an interesting book, but I didn't like that it was constantly jumping around in time. If it's a memoir, I would much prefer it to be in chronological order.
Jill has done a lot of work to break away from the toxicity of IBLP and her family, but it feels like maybe this memoir was written too early as she has a long way to go still. I also HATED that she glossed over her husband's extremely anti-lgbtq tweets. She only mentions the existence of them to dispel the rumours that Derick was fired from TLC as a result of them. It's only because I looked up what they were about that I learned how homophobic he is. I further learned that Jill has basically said that she wouldn't "allow" her sons to be gay. I'm not gonna lie, that reveal coloured the rest of my reading of the book.
It was also frustrating to see how much she defended her mom and kinda pushed all the blame onto her dad when Michelle is not innocent and actively abused her children. Jill also maintains that her mom and dad were both great parents UNTIL the show came and poisoned JimBob (I still can't get over that stupid name). But, after watching Shiny, Happy People, it's clear their whole system of parenting is controlling and abusive (case and point: blanket training), and Jill doesn't seem to recognize that, instead blaming TLC and JimBob's being corrupted by the money he got from the show. I do think Jill demonstrated a lot of courage in writing this book, and I do hope she continues to deconstruct her life in this cult, but at this point, the memoir feels only halfway there.
Jill has done a lot of work to break away from the toxicity of IBLP and her family, but it feels like maybe this memoir was written too early as she has a long way to go still. I also HATED that she glossed over her husband's extremely anti-lgbtq tweets. She only mentions the existence of them to dispel the rumours that Derick was fired from TLC as a result of them. It's only because I looked up what they were about that I learned how homophobic he is. I further learned that Jill has basically said that she wouldn't "allow" her sons to be gay. I'm not gonna lie, that reveal coloured the rest of my reading of the book.
It was also frustrating to see how much she defended her mom and kinda pushed all the blame onto her dad when Michelle is not innocent and actively abused her children. Jill also maintains that her mom and dad were both great parents UNTIL the show came and poisoned JimBob (I still can't get over that stupid name). But, after watching Shiny, Happy People, it's clear their whole system of parenting is controlling and abusive (case and point: blanket training), and Jill doesn't seem to recognize that, instead blaming TLC and JimBob's being corrupted by the money he got from the show. I do think Jill demonstrated a lot of courage in writing this book, and I do hope she continues to deconstruct her life in this cult, but at this point, the memoir feels only halfway there.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Mental illness
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Incest, and Pedophilia