Anna LeBaronBesprekingen

This memoir is so interesting and well-written that it was hard to put down. I lost sleep reading it, then finished the final chapters sitting in an airport and not caring that fellow passengers saw my tears. Such despair and deprivation, such resiliency and growth, such promise and hope -- I think if I say more than that, I'll enter "spoilers" territory. If you like memoirs in general and/or are intrigued by this subject matter, then make haste to buy it; I don't think you'll be disappointed. It will give you "all the feels."

I received an Advance Reader copy from Tyndale Momentum in exchange for my honest review.

Anna LeBaron is the daughter of Ervil LeBaron, the self-proclaimed "prophet" of a radical Mormon cult.

Here she tells what it was like to grow up in a polygamous family who was on the run from the FBI. (Though she didn't realize it until she was much older, several of her family members were wanted for murder.)

This was a really interesting account, as LeBaron faced abandonment, poverty, hunger, and abuse as a child, and the deaths (murders) of family members as a young adult. She managed to leave the sect at thirteen, when she moved in with her sister and brother-in-law; however, she still had contact with several family members during her teenage years.

While some other reviewers were disappointed in the non-emotional telling of most of the story, I appreciated this aspect. LeBaron mentions that she compartmentalized her feelings for most of her life (until she finally worked through them during counseling) and I felt that this writing style more precisely portrayed what she was thinking and feeling (or not feeling) while experiencing these events.

The strongest part of the book is definitely where she relayed her childhood. The last quarter or so of the book talks about her grieving process and counseling and while some of that is a necessary part of the story, I felt this could have been better condensed.

All in all, if you're interested in polygamy, cults, or poverty, this is a worthwhile read!

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

An incredibly moving and heartbreaking life story.

Heartbreaking story of a child who really should have had better from her parents. People that take advantage of others naivety to manipulate and control them (her father) and people who put falsely religious manipulators above their own children should never be allowed to have children in the first place. Despite her horrendous upbringing Anna seems to have been able to rise above and make a better future for herself and her own children.

A quick read about a Mormon polygamist cultees escape.

I found the book interesting. I had no idea that polygamy was practiced in Mexico as well and could be life threatening. It was heart wrenching to read about the experiences that Anna had. I did like the story, but the story telling could be better. I would recommend it to others.

So many times I gasped at what happened to her and what she survived.

Recommend, even though These books get a little monotonous, every child like the other and all so sad. We as a country talk about "for the children". These books all confirm child abuse in these religious cults but suddenly it becomes the rights of the parents that override everything. We'll probably never learn.

In The Polygamist’s Daughter Anna LeBaron details her life in a polygamist cult of the Mormon church. She describes herself as: “... memoirist, book launch expert, dynamic speaker and life coach, an avid reader, and mum to five grown children” but I see her as an enormously courageous and strong woman who endured atrocities that no-one should ever have to face. Her story is one of hope and encouragement.

When I first started reading this book I found it very depressing, so it delayed me in really getting started. I then made a point of continuing, and found it hard to put down. Whilst the story was very depressing there was something within it that drove me to continue reading to find out what transpired. I was wanting her life to improve so she could live without being cloaked in “... fear, chaos, and insecurity...” not helped by her mother’s extended absences and her being moved from one strange family to another. I was continually struck by the abject poverty to which Anna and her siblings were subjected through no fault of their own. I have seen documentaries about this extreme Mormon cult and how wives, who weren’t in favour, and their children, were so poorly treated, but to read a first-hand account caused me great sorrow and pain. I was also left with the thought that if this was the behaviour of a family in Australia Social Services would be stepping in extremely quickly to get the children to safer houses where they could be nurtured and cared for properly. It made me rethink whether we need much of what we think we do in order to survive. It was reaffirming to read that the non-extremist Mormons don’t acknowledge or recognise the polygamist branches of their faith, confirming a comment made to me many years ago by an ex-Mormon.

The brainwashing that went on in the cult was a very powerful tool to keep all members under control. Anna’s father (Ervil LeBaron) was in jail for murder, and if any other cult members were put in prison for killing people the explanation given by those on the outside was that they were being punished for doing God’s work. This reasoning leaves me asking which God are they worshipping as He is very different from my own experience of God, Who doesn’t. ask his followers to kill people to prove their allegiance to Him. Ironically, it was this same God who helped Anna heal, live and become free in the real sense of the word. It was wonderful to read that after all she went through, and the painful healing process she endured, she has come out of the experience a much happier and stronger person, when it could easily have gone the other way. I was glad that she was able to have something positive come out of her horrific experiences. I also admire the courage that it would have taken to write this book in the first place.

I received a complimentary copy of the book for review purposes from Tyndale House.

Umm...wow. Really puts into perspective how cult life is so sick and twisted. So many lives lost just because they left. So sad.

Reading through The Polygamist’s Daughter felt more like I was sitting in front of a friend who was pouring her heart out about what she had gone through; as if a dam of pain and anguish finally broke releasing all the poison from the abuse that had been heaped upon her. It has such a therapeutic sense about it, almost as if you’re sitting quietly in her counselor’s office listening to the lilt of her voice steadily compress an entire life’s existence into one therapy session.

Anna LeBaron writes with a shocking warmth considering who her father was and how her life was shaped by growing up in a polygamous cult. I chose this because I had been watching reruns of Big Love lately since Bill Paxton had been on my mind with his recent passing. Now I can’t help but wonder if that show, Sister Wives and anything else that paints polygamy in a positive light is doing untold damage to a far uglier reality.

Every time Hollywood attempts to paint this monogamy alternative in a positive light, extolling the virtues and benefits of one man having multiple wives with double digit number of children, is it taking something away from the experience LeBaron and her family went through? At least for those who don’t share the same positive viewpoints the followers of Ervil LeBaron and others like him? These are the questions that kept plaguing me as I read her poignant memoir because she writes in a way that leaves you feeling like you want to scream one minute, cry until you have nothing left the next or both at the same time.

Even though she’s an adult looking back from her childhood forward, there are times when she’s discussing those early days of her life when you forget this is not the voice of an adult because she’s managed to capture so delicately how a child would see the life around her.

This novel is just so poignantly brave and beautiful I can’t even comprehend the strength and bravery it took to survive what she has much less write about it. It’s definitely a must read if only so you can find a model of strength to follow.

A read that will make you realize how lucky you are and how your childhood compared to this poor little girl who really didn’t have one. A survivor for sure, but at what price, and what is told in this true story of the life of Anna LeBaron.
I vaguely remember reading about some of the murders that were committed but this cult, and why, well you can’t leave, or the head honcho doesn’t like you or wants what you have.
No wonder this girl ends up in therapy, and you have to wonder while reading if it can even help, all that she has been through and seen. You wonder how a mother could allow these things to happen to her child, or leave her, in a foreign country no less, but then I had to think this woman was so brain washed, but it still made it hard to read all that went on.
This is a quick page turning read, and once I started the author compelled me to keep reading, all the while I wanted to hug and comfort her, but loved the story right to the end.
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Tyndale, and was not required to give a positive review.

I feel like my heart was broken and stitched back together during the reading of this book.

Polygamy has been much in the news in the past few years, with the popularity of the TV show Sisterwives, and the widely-anticipated raid and subsequent imprisonment of cult leader Warren Jeffs. Memoirs of life inside these religious groups have been popular over the past years, and I've read a bunch of them. But I don't think I've read one that felt so deeply personal, and yet so universally hopeful.

LeBaron's story includes serious deprivations, abuse, actual murders - this is like a CSI case on steroids, and yet it's completely true. And yet the author's ultimate message is freedom - it's not a story of how bad her life was, or how sorry we should all feel for her. It's a story of redemption - of overcoming - of walking a hard road, and coming out the other side truly free.

This is a hard, brutal, beautiful story. Don't miss it. Highest of recommendations.

(I received an advance copy from Tyndale House in exchange for my honest opinion - but then I pre-ordered my own copy. It's that good.)