Escape | 
 enlarge | Authors: Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $7.47
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Avg. Customer Rating:  276 reviews
Sales Rank: 633
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.4
ISBN: 0767927567
Dewey Decimal Number: 289.3092
EAN: 9780767927567
ASIN: 0767927567
Publication Date: October 16, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Great Buy!! Like New Book...5 Star Seller!!
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Product Description
The dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children.
When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of Carolyn’s heritage: She was born into and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church that had settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children and withstood her husband’s psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of his other wives who were locked in a constant battle for supremacy.
Carolyn’s every move was dictated by her husband’s whims. He decided where she lived and how her children would be treated. He controlled the money she earned as a school teacher. He chose when they had sex; Carolyn could only refuse—at her peril. For in the FLDS, a wife’s compliance with her husband determined how much status both she and her children held in the family. Carolyn was miserable for years and wanted out, but she knew that if she tried to leave and got caught, her children would be taken away from her. No woman in the country had ever escaped from the FLDS and managed to get her children out, too. But in 2003, Carolyn chose freedom over fear and fled her home with her eight children. She had $20 to her name.
Escape exposes a world tantamount to a prison camp, created by religious fanatics who, in the name of God, deprive their followers the right to make choices, force women to be totally subservient to men, and brainwash children in church-run schools. Against this background, Carolyn Jessop’s flight takes on an extraordinary, inspiring power. Not only did she manage a daring escape from a brutal environment, she became the first woman ever granted full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the FLDS. And in 2006, her reports to the Utah attorney general on church abuses formed a crucial part of the case that led to the arrest of their notorious leader, Warren Jeffs.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 271 more reviews...
 Amazing Story July 23, 2008
I didn't like this book. Not because it wasn't a truely amazing story but because as she was describing the tension that was going on in her life it made me tense also. It took me a long time to read it because it stressed me out too much.
She tended to repeat herself a few times during the book and sometimes the writing was a little unorganized. She is a novice writer and I blame most of that on the editor.
Overall it's an amazing story. It truely gives a detailed account of what the FLDS is all about and all the abuse (mental and physical) that goes on inside these communities. It also shows just how hard these people have to work to free themselves and their children from this horrendous oppression.
 Eye Opening July 21, 2008
This book opened my eyes like no other I've ever read. I honestly had no idea that the conditions of a FLDS home were that severe. My heart ached for Carolyn as I read about the abuse she and her children suffered at the hands of Merrill Jessop. The book is very well-written and one that I had a very hard time putting down.
Hands down the most troubling - but one of the best captured stories I've ever read.
Amazing Strength July 21, 2008
Carolyn Jessop is a lesson in courage. Not only has she fought an incredibly inhumane man for her and her children's freedom, but she has provided great insight to the atrocities occurring within the cult of the FLDS. I commend her strength, endurance and grace.
 Interesting read; incredible and horrific long-term abuse in every way July 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The constant abuse that went on is beyond imagination. In fact, there is SO much of it, that there were times that I reached a point where I said, "enough". I can't even imagine actually living with this for almost two decades. For all the people that defend these FLDS pedophiles, rapists, wife and women abusers (basically mysogynists), all I have to say is that you need to open up your eyes and possibly hearts and realize the amount of inhumanity that is prevalent in this type of culture. Faithful FLDS women who have churned out a dozen children (oftentimes more) get dumped to the curb in their 40's or 50's as they can no longer bear children or start losing their looks. The other wives are thrilled when that happens because it puts them in the position of becoming Alpha wife. Mental illness is disregarded and is in fact blamed on the woman for being "rebellious". Any physical handicaps, illness, sickness is also blamed on the woman and is part of the "rebellious" mantra that is indoctrinated in these people. In fact, everything that can go wrong is blamed on "rebelliousness". This sort of thinking/mindset leaves room for the "husband" to do anything to anybody at anytime as it's his job to keep everyone in line and invite them to heaven...where they can all live in their little god planet and churn out dozens and dozens of children while faithfully serving their priests (husbands). Personally, I'd rather spend time with Beelzebub than be NEAR one of these FLDS nutjobs (like Warren Jeffs), for example.
The FLDS women/wives/mothers (on TV) portray themselves as loving their children and being some sort of exemplatary mothers. The truth, however, is quite different (despite the pioneer frocks which are supposed to add to the illusion). According to the book, some of the mothers don't even LIVE with the children; they are SENT away trying to earn a living for the polygamist family while the other sister wives are "raising" them (by "raising" them, I mean, "abusing" them). The money earned by the wives is handed over to the "husband" who handles all the money; most of it being turned over to the Alpha Wife who acts like some sort of Wicked Stepmother as depicted in fairytales.
The kids that are from the non-Alpha wives often go hungry, are beaten for going hungry, for not being awake at the prayer meetings/services held by the all mighty "husband/father" at midnight. These poor kids are beaten to the point where they are several degrees from death. And in the end, it's all their fault because they were "rebellious". This type of physical abuse is perfectly fine as it's about making the kids fearful as this is what keeps them in line. Women, children (and some men) are treated like chattel, to say the least. This is a PC way of putting it.
The incredible amount of abuse that goes on is beyond comprehension. From the blatant mysogyny, to the physical, mental, and emotional abuse, to the assigning and reassigning of wives and children to other men, to the abuse and cruelty of animals (cutting off a live cow's head with a hand saw); it's all too much.
I give credit to Joseph Smith and his successors; that he/they could get so many people to buy into this ("religions"), hook, line, and sinker and actually BELIEVE this nonsense. This BELIEF is what gives the FLDS the power to continue these crimes against humanity. The "law" is not making it any better when they protect the abusers more than the victims. It doesn't help when the "law" is FLDS.
This book is a good read as it takes you into the mind and lifestyle of the FLDS. I don't know if all of the FLDS is this way, but there are sure enough of these bad apples that have tarnished the reputation of any possibly "good apples" of the FLDS.
Amazing Book July 16, 2008
Carolyn Jessop did an amazing job writing this book. I could not put it down!!! While it was incredibly difficult to relate to why she stayed with her evil "husband", I could relate to her love for her children. HOW MUCH ABUSE IS TOO MUCH???
Hopefully this book can be smuggled in to the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado,Texas and others will read it and be inspired to escape from the FLDS Evil Empire, also!! There is nothing on earth she could have done that would have been better than writing this account of her life in the FLDS with Merril Jessop. I kept wondering if he has read it. I would be willing to bet that he HAS, and I would have loved to have seen the look on his face as all of his warts were exposed to the world.
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