Highly recommend.

My company employs FLDS ladies (three of whom are married to Warren Jeffs [one was also one of his mothers, as she was also married to Rulon Jeffs]). They are devout. They wear the prairie dresses, have the swooping high hair with elaborate braids, and have Warren Jeff's large portrait hanging on their wall, highlighted under a large spotlight. They consider me a gentile and have been taught from a young age that all of us on the outside are actively seeking to destroy them, so I am very careful with our working relationship. They are lovely, soft spoken women who have been very kind to me, bringing me treats after I broke my leg, and inviting me into their homes to visit, even though I'm not sure they're supposed to. Wanting them to feel safe, I have not asked them the fifty bajillion probing questions I'd love to ask.

Instead, I have fallen down a multitude of polygamist rabbit holes, researching the various Mormon splinter groups extensively. I am intrigued by the FLDS group and am particularly amazed that if my polygamist ancestors had decided to follow Lorin Woolley, I could have been born into the FLDS sect myself. I know what it's like to be raised to believe a certain way--in particular, an extra, 'higher law' sort of way. So it's really easy for me to see and understand, how the faithful FLDS people live and believe the way they do, unable to recognize Warren Jeffs for what he is: a depraved pedophile.

So this book has been sitting in my Audible wishlist since it came out, and I finally got to listen to it while on a road trip to California. I was riveted. I was so annoyed when anyone wanted to talk to me or needed my attention elsewhere. I wanted everyone to leave me alone so I could listen to Rachel's story!

Rachel reads the audiobook herself. Some audible reviews thought she was hard to listen to, but I'm already familiar with the unique cadence in which the sister wives that work for me speak, so I didn't find it off-putting at all. Rachel adds a hard k sound after words ending in -ing. I've been told I do the same, though not as prominently as she does. Maybe it's a Rocky Mountains region thing? Anyway, I enjoyed listening to her read her own book.

I don't know if she had a ghostwriter or any help, but the words seemed to match her 'voice' as I've listened to her speak during various interviews. The book is overall well written and well organized, and I thought she handled the descriptions of the abuse she suffered very well. Sometimes abuse can be described so graphic that it makes you feel like you're some kind of gross voyeur for listening, that didn't happen here. I mean, I'm appalled by all that she suffered, but it didn't feel too graphic or exaggerated or anything. Given the proof against her father and his life sentence, I can't imagine anyone outside the FLDS accusing Rachel of lying, but just for the record, this had the ring of truth and believability to it throughout.

I'm so sad for all she and her family have gone through. I have so much admiration for her strength in finally getting out, making it out with her children, and the love and respect she still displays for her loved ones still in the faith.