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.
This book is incredible! It will have you on the edge of your chair. You wont want to put it down. These cruel insecure, power hungry, egotistical, narcissistic men are the most putrid forms of life imaginable! Anger boiled inside me as I read this book. Carolyn is a remarkable women who anyone can draw inspiration from. Her determination to forge on for the sake of her kids is honerable. What a woman! I encourage everyone to read this book. Let's help Carolyn become successful over her book and help her to enjoy the riches she deserves after so long of oppression. You go girl!
Angie
When a memoir is turned into an audiobook it seems especially important that the narrator sound as if she could be the author. Narrator Alison Fraser accomplishes that and much more. She voices an accurate and believable Carolyn Jessop, the remarkable woman who escaped with her eight children from the grips of a violent and abusive cult - the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). Carolyn's true story is one of survival. Born into a polygamist society, Carolyn is married off at age 18 as the fourth wife of Merril Jessop, a prominent leader in the FLDS community. As Carolyn becomes pregnant nearly every year, she struggles against oppression by her husband, his other wives, and the violently misogynistic community. Narrator Alison Fraser is able to perfectly capture both Carolyn's vulnerability and strength, along with her naiveté and cunning intelligence, which makes Escape a gripping and believable audiobook. Listeners will feel as if Carolyn herself is telling this story, which is the sign of a perfectly produced audiobook.
-Jessica Teel
Listeners will not want to turn off the CD's until heroine Carolyn Jessop manages to escape the horrific world of the FLDS. Carolyn's memoir describes a world in which women are totally and utterly controlled - by their fathers, husbands, and religious leaders. Through calculated planning, and a lot of smarts and guts, Carolyn manages to free herself and her eight children from this nightmare world. This book was highly successful in audio format. Alison Fraser reads Escape and she sounds exactly how I imagine Carolyn Jessop might read. Her performance is appropriately emotionally without being overly theatrical, which makes the listener feel as if a real person, and not an actress, is telling this tale. An interview with the author is also included, which I found quite interesting and enjoyable. I highly recommend this audiobook. Escape is a true life horror story that fortunately has a happy ending.
