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A review by emileereadsbooks
The Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice by Rebecca Musser, M. Bridget Cook
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Rebecca grew up believing what she was told to believe. Polygamy was the correct way of life. Modesty was connected to your morality. The outside world was dangerous. And the Prophet knew best. But when as a teenager she became the 19th wife of the 85 year old FLDS prophet, Rulon Jeff's, her eyes began to be opened to the suffering and lies all around her. Although she escaped, she was pulled back into the church's orbit to protect other girls from the witness stand against Warren Jeffs. Then she was instrumental in helping Texas authorities shut down the Yearning for Zion Ranch and the stronghold the FLDS had built there.
This is BY FAR the best escape memoir I have ever read and I have read quite a few. Not only because Rebecca's story is so intense, but the way she is willing to share intimate parts of her pain with the reader is so tender and also so eye opening. She does not make her life a spectacle for entertainment, rather she uses her life experiences and the beliefs she has held at different points to illustrate how this abuse in the FLDS church has been allowed to be perpetuated and how she then was able to use her experiences and knowledge to fight against it.
If you have any interest at all in this kind of book and you haven't read it yet, I encourage you to pick it up. I don't think you will regret it.