Stolen Innocence
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Product Description
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 upsetting and plain account proved to be the most compelling evidence against Jeffs, showing the harsh realities of this clogged 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 tale 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 tree’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 treacherous new directions, Wall describes the inescapable mind-set and inexorable 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 spouse in “mind, body, and soul.” With small money and no knowledge of the outside world, she was trapped and forced to suffer 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 persons 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 weirder named Lamont Barlow. Their chance encounter set in motion a friendship and eventual romance that gave her the might 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 hard months on the outside that led her to come forwards against him, effective with prosecutors on one of the largest criminal cases in Utah’s history, so that additional girls still inside the church might be spared her cruel fate.
More than a tale of survival and freedom, Stolen Innocence is the tale of one heroic woman who stood up for what was right and reclaimed her life.
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This was an appealing read. Giving outsiders or “Gentiles” an inside view of the very secretive FLDS. In light of the recent raid and surprising order to return the children to their parents in the sect, it is of interest and very informational. The books is obviously mostly ghost written and it’s simple to differentiate the two voices of the authors. My main objection to the tale is that at times the leader tries very hard to prove her case as the wronged victim. She resorts at times to ridiculous childhood dramas. Her future spouse let her fall in the snow when they were children, he called her names. These silly n incidents place her in more of a terrible light than they do him. Overall, but, I recommend it just for the glimpse inside a sect that is able to really control its members through dread.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I momentously admire and respect Elissa Wall, but not this book she wrote… obviously with the help of an amateur journalist. Yes, the tale seemed appealing enough for me to pay $25, but wasn’t worth it in the least. I guess it could be a excellent beach read… but check it out of the library, or at least wait for the paperback. This book is no work of art, and certainly wasn’t life changing. The writing was laugh-out-loud terrible. I guess I have to give it to Elissa, though–she certainly had a tough life. But, don’t buy the book. You’re much better off with “Under the Banner of Heaven”.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
This is an incredible theme and I really admire Elissa Wall for telling it to us and for appearing in the court case that brought down Warren Jeffs. But for persons of us who know very small about this theme, there could have had more detail.
Not of all the traumatic things that happened to her, but of all the every day life in a FCLSD. I wanted to know what they ate (with 14 children), how the sleeping arrangements were organised. I wanted to know what they learnt in their home economics class (since most of us these days have never done home ec). I was curious about their clothing, where they got the material, what was well loved amongst the girls, acceptable by the leaders and how they learnt to make them. What were the undergarments she referrred to? I wondered why the photographs were so poorly captioned. Which one was Rachel, Kassandra or even Mother Laura and Mother Audrey? I was confused about the actual scenery of the rows in their household. How did they do persons hair-dos and what sort of chores were they doing for how long and how regularly.
I don’t blame Elissa, she had lived the life and couldn’t see it objectively, but she had a ghost writer (Lisa Pulitzer) and presumably William Morrow gave them an editor, who could have drawn her out for the colorless details of her extraordinary life.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
STOLEN INNOCENCE is the third book I’ve read recently about polygamous wives belonging to Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Unlike Irene Spencer’s Shattered Dreams or Susan Ray Schmdt’s His Favorite Wife-this book is more in the offing about the belief that a woman’s salvation -”ticket to heaven” depends upon doing exactly what she is told to do by male church leaders and an appointed spouse. Regardless if you are really an acting out female adolescent – the FLDS solution is not counseling it is marriage at 14 to your first counsin! The whole book is more about sexual/physical/mental child abuse than polygamous marriage since Elissa is a 14 yr ancient first wife of an abusing man lacking additional wives.
The 431 pages are printed in extremely tiny font and hard to follow. Sometimes the prose reminded me of something written in shorthand where another person tried to transcribe terrible notes. Lags in places, does not provide helpful detail in additional sections. I expected more.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
Stolen Innocence is a excellent read, not a fantastic read. The content is believable to a point. So much of what Ms. Wall shares is right along the lines of what so many of the women who escape FLDS have said. But she does get into a bit of lala land toward the end so it puts her credibility to question. In no way do I want to take away the horror of what she and others in the organization (cult) have been through and continue to go through even now.
I have no proof that any of what Ms. Wall said is not the whole truth. Just a feeling. As far as the book goes, it is a very excellent read and whether read for fact or not, it is a page turner.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5