Ed Smart

This book is a great complement to Elizabeth's book, [b:My Story|17287028|My Story|Elizabeth Smart|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1367749530s/17287028.jpg|24036009]. However, if you're interested in the salacious details of the Elizabeth Smart case, neither book will be satisfying. The Smarts have chosen to keep these details private, which is understandable, although apparently angering to my fellow reviewers. The Smarts instead focus on how their religious beliefs helped them during the nine months that Elizabeth was missing and during the time afterwards. I very much respect the Smart family.

What remains exceedingly interesting to me are the discrepancies between the Smarts' accounts and Elizabeth's personal account, which was published much later.

From my review of My Story:
"Elizabeths' parents, in their book Bringing Elizabeth Home: A Journey of Faith and Hope, give a slightly different version of her rescue including a fairly lengthy exchange (over 45 minutes) between the officers and Elizabeth (on the day of her rescue) where she refused to identify herself. She instead responded that her name was Augustine, identified Mitchell & Barzee as her parents, told them that she was 18 years old and even denied that she was Elizabeth Smart when the officers persisted by showing her a missing persons flyer with her picture on it. It was only when they pushed her further that she started crying and hinted indirectly that she may be who they say she was. Her mom Lois, rightly attributes this in the book Bringing Elizabeth Home to Elizabeth feeling confused, guilty, ashamed, conditioned by Mitchell to say all these things, not wanting to flee from her captors and so on - feelings that would not be uncommon for someone in her situation. Somehow, the recent book My Story seems to gloss over these details including any of the raw emotions she felt and her seemingly confused state of mind at the time of her rescue. She instead seems to portray herself as a strong person with a single-minded determination to escape all through her captivity."… (meer)

The first 20 pages were seriously nothing but God-gushing. I'm mean, absolutely nothing but that. I've got no problem with or against any religion by I certainly didn't pick up the book wanting to know what a perfect, devout, Mormon family they were. In the opening of the book, they flat out say there won't be any details of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping. I respect that choice of hers but it immediately lessened my desire to read the book. I wanted to learn the full family experience. So. This book just wasn't what I was expecting.… (meer)