Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs by Elissa Wall with Lisa Pulitzer
So obviously I can’t get enough of the polygamy stories this year. And wow. Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs by Elissa Wall with Lisa Pulitzer was amazing. Escape by Carolyn Jessop (my book review) and Shattered Dreams, My Life as a Polygamist’s Life by Irene Spencer (my book review) were the other two books I read this year about polygamy, but Stolen Innocence was very unlike those other two books.
And I apologize for the canned description from the publisher. I’ve been sitting on this review for a month because I was so intimidated by trying to describe it, so I finally just gave up.
In September 2007, a packed courtroom in St. George, Utah, sat hushed as Elissa Wall, the star witness against polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs, gave captivating testimony of how Jeffs forced her to marry her first cousin at age fourteen. This harrowing and vivid account proved to be the most compelling evidence against Jeffs, showing the harsh realities of this closed community and the lengths to which Jeffs went in order to control the sect’s women.
Now, in this courageous memoir, Elissa Wall tells the incredible and inspirational story of how she emerged from the confines of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and helped bring one of America’s most notorious criminals to justice. Offering a child’s perspective on life in the FLDS, Wall discusses her tumultuous youth, explaining how her family’s turbulent past intersected with her strong will and identified her as a girl who needed to be controlled through marriage. Detailing how Warren Jeffs’s influence over the church twisted its already rigid beliefs in dangerous new directions, Wall portrays the inescapable mind-set and unrelenting pressure that forced her to wed despite her repeated protests that she was too young.
Once she was married, Wall’s childhood shattered as she was obligated to follow Jeffs’s directives and submit to her husband in “mind, body, and soul.” With little money and no knowledge of the outside world, she was trapped and forced to endure the pain and abuse of her loveless relationship, which eventually pushed her to spend nights sleeping in her truck rather than face the tormentor in her bed.
Yet even in those bleak times, she retained a sliver of hope that one day she would find a way out, and one snowy night that came in the form of a rugged stranger named Lamont Barlow. Their chance encounter set in motion a friendship and eventual romance that gave her the strength she needed to break free from her past and sever the chains of the church.
But though she was out of the FLDS, Wall would still have to face Jeffs—this time in court. In Stolen Innocence, she delves into the difficult months on the outside that led her to come forward against him, working with prosecutors on one of the biggest criminal cases in Utah’s history, so that other girls still inside the church might be spared her cruel fate.
More than a tale of survival and freedom, Stolen Innocence is the story of one heroic woman who stood up for what was right and reclaimed her life.
I could not believe this book! I had to keep reminding myself that Elissa is just 21 years old. Right now! She gives us a very up close and personal look at the world of Warren Jeffs. How messed up this guy is. And I would use the term brainwashed for those within the community.
What I was really surprised by was how innocent Elissa was when she was forced to marry. I was given the impression from the other two books I’ve read that sex was often talked about amongst the wives in the household. But yet Elissa had no idea. She didn’t know how babies were made. She did not know anatomy. She was told that boys were snakes to be avoided at all costs and then the next minute to submit fully to her new husband. She was very confused when he tried to have marital relations with her. After being repeatedly raped, she went to Warren Jeffs to ask for a divorce. He continually sent her back.
Once she was able to leave she worked with authorities to bring Warren Jeffs to justice. I was amazed with the behind the scenes view that she brought to such a high profile case. Man, oh man. Just read this book. It was fascinating. I can’t believe the things that people live through. Many of their free will and others who desperately want out but can’t.
Video of Elissa Wall:
Highly recommended.
Category: Book Reviews, Memoir/Biography, Nonfiction
Tags: polygamy, published 2008, Q-T Title, U-Z Author, Utah author
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This subject also fascinates me! I will have to read this book.
on December 11th, 2008 at 12:09 amI’ve read a lot of books about the FLDS this year, too, but not this one. I always wonder if I’d be strong enough to escape like Elissa.
on December 11th, 2008 at 5:53 amI’ve read other reviews saying that this one is SO much better than Shattered Dreams; still, I think I have to recuperate from that one before I read another one!
on December 11th, 2008 at 6:51 amAnd to the wishlist it goes
on December 11th, 2008 at 10:11 amI loved reading this book also. It really opened my eyes to how life is for them. And like she says in the book when she would dress in normal clothes that it felt good not to be looked at as someone who does not belong and get made fun of. After reading this book it makes me look at polygamists in a different way. I no longer stare when I see them in the store it just makes my heart want to leap out and comfort them after reading this book.
on December 11th, 2008 at 12:21 pmWow, what an amazing story. I read the book “Under the Banner of Heaven” by Jon Krakauer, also about the FLDS. Incredible that these things go on in today’s world! I feel for this woman. That must have been incredibly hard to leave behind everything she had grown up knowing.
on December 11th, 2008 at 8:59 pmYou do get yourself in little subject themes quite often Natasha.
I need to read some of these biographies. I haven’t read a biography or memoir in AGES. It’s been fiction for so long I’ve forgotten that some crazy stuff happens in real life!
on December 11th, 2008 at 11:11 pmSo sad and it really makes me sick too.
on December 12th, 2008 at 12:04 pmThis sounds so good! I will definitely add it to my “to be read” pile! Thanks for the recommendation.
on December 12th, 2008 at 10:10 pmLisa – I’ve been reading a few of these this year. I’ve liked them all.
Kathy – I wonder as well. For many of these girls, their way of life is the only way of life that they know. They are told that the outside world is evil. And even if they want to, many of the hotline numbers are false. The police force are all FLDS. They can’t drive. Many have children that they would be forced to leave behind. Rarely, do they get themselves and their children out.
SmallWorld Reads – I did like this one better than Shattered Dreams simply for the reason that we get a lot more into Warren Jeffs. The writing isn’t great. You can tell that she’s young and inexperienced. You had to keep reminding yourself that she had never even heard the word sex before.
Becky – I’d be curious to see what you think of it.
Michelle – I thought the same thing when I recently saw two polygamist women at Ikea. I instantly thought how awkward it is for them to be out and about.
Kim L. – I just bought Under the Banner of Heaven secondhand. Hopefully, I’ll get to it this next year.
Ladytink_534 – Yep! Agree.
Jen – You’re welcome!
on December 14th, 2008 at 9:31 pmJenn M. – I know! Once I find a topic that interests me, I just run with it! I’ve read a lot of great memoirs this year. There is a lot of weird stuff that you wouldn’t believe actually goes on. Sad stuff.
on December 14th, 2008 at 10:04 pmI get get that way too…even with authors. I think I sometimes like living in my bubble. Reading some of the terrible real-life things your wouldn’t believe in a fictonal account. It’s hard for me. I find reading it harder than watching it. Odd I suppose. I can watch historical accounts of the Holocaust, but reading about it is harder for me. You would think the images shown in documentaries would be worse. For some reason, not for me.
on December 15th, 2008 at 5:28 pm[...] Natasha at Maw Books [...]
on January 7th, 2009 at 12:42 pmI have read most of the books on polygamy and got this one on audio CD. This book was extremely detailed and my favorite so far. I was the FOR KIDS SAKE rep. 25 miles from Colorado City and while other young women were running or being rescued, we had no idea of Elissa’s plight.
I have 10,000 pages of FLDS theology in text and 550 of Warren Jeffs audio cassettes and take my word for it, this book is very detailed and accurate.
on January 16th, 2009 at 11:33 pmJay – Thank you for your comment. I’m glad to know how accurate the book is. I’m curious as to what other books you would recommend?
on January 20th, 2009 at 9:30 pmThe growing up situation as you described it is NOT that unusual in much of America today. My wife got very little education in anatomy or sex ed before we married. Her parents, adult friends, and relatives were of a conservative religious nature which taught abstinence. My parents and growing up life was similar halfway across the country, but I was more actively curious than my wife was. We were both virgins on our wedding night. It took a while to figure out how it all went together, but we sure had a lot of fun figuring it out.
The problem as I see it was NOT necessarily with Warren Jeffs from what little I read even though he definitely had issues. Selfish husbands who think of nothing but their own desires and have no clue how to romance a woman of any age. I’ve always taken my time with my wife. She’s grown from scared and frigid to multi-orgasmic. It’s not Ms Wall’s fault; it’s her selfish boor of a husband.
on January 21st, 2009 at 6:21 pm