Book/Story: ⭐️⭐⭐️⭐
Book Cover: ⭐️⭐️⭐.5

Trigger Warning(s): Cult Activity
Domestic Abuse
Misogyny
Emotional Abuse
Religion
POV: First Person
Series/Standalone: Standalone
First In Series: N/A
Trope(s): None
Spice: ️None
Genre: Memoir
Burn: Medium
Safe or Dark: Safe
Release Date: October 22, 2024

I haven't watched One Tree Hill, so I'm not familiar with this actress or the character she portrays on the show. However, I am very into stories about cults/people who were involved in them. Bethany Joy Lenz's story sounded fascinating based on the synopsis, so when Book of the Month offered this as one of their selections, I snatched it. I'm happy to announce that the synopsis didn’t lie this time.

First and foremost, I would like it to be known that I never judge people who have been part of a cult or an organization with cult-like behaviors. We don’t know what a person was dealing with at a particular time in their life to make them get “sucked” in by the leader of the group or why their certain lifestyle appealed to them. I sympathize with what these people go through and the abuse that they have endured while being misled by all those fake prophets out there.

We all know about the mainstream cults out there, the ones that often have documentaries made about them and discussed on the news.

E.G.: The Peoples Temple, The Manson Family, Heaven’s Gate, Children of God, and NXIVM. Just to name a few.

We don’t often think about all the cults out there that operate on a smaller scale. The ones that fly under the radar and get no public recognition. The ones that can slowly pull a person in without them even realizing it. That’s exactly what happened to Joy Lenz. She was a victim of a cult that the general public didn’t even know about.

This is a story about failure, courage, finding yourself, strength, and taking back your life.

This isn’t a memoir solely about Lenz's time on One Tree Hill but an overall story of her life. So, if you’re a OTH fan who was looking forward to reading about the show, turn back now. However, the story about her time in the cult (The Big House Family) and her time on One Tree Hill do coincide. So, if that’s what you’re looking for, then stick around.

I’m not a huge memoir reader. I have only read a handful. I often find the writing to be dense and, at times, clunky. Not this one; the writing flowed nicely and was easy to follow, albeit at times repetitive. The timeline was nice and cohesive; it didn’t jump around like it does sometimes in other memoirs. You were able to know exactly what Lenz was going through at any given point in the story. The writing was very detailed without being flowery. The picture that’s painted really had me sympathizing with all the people involved.

Don’t get me wrong. The first part of the memoir is a bit slow-moving as everything is getting set up, but once we get to the meat of things, we really get moving. There was no huge moment that occurred to make Lenz join the cult. There was no big bang. (So, again, if you’re looking for something like that, turn back now.) It just happened, and we learn about that through her. I myself am not a religious person, but this memoir made me understand the allure of it and how when religion is followed properly, it can be a beautiful lifeline for some people and how if it’s used as a weapon, it can be devastating and destructive.

Not only do you learn about Joy Lenz's time in her cult and the double life she so desperately tried to balance, but also about the operations of Hollywood. How hard it can be to break onto the scene. How you have hundreds of rejections before someone takes a chance on you. How roles start to slow down for actresses as they start to age and all the double standards that come from growing older in Hollywood (“Actors get older; actresses get old.”). I found that to be fascinating.

Bethany Joy Lenz tells a passionate, infuriating, and at times sweet story. It shows that any of us can fall prey to these kinds of groups no matter how fiercely we believe that we wouldn’t. It shows that you don’t necessarily have to be down on your luck, weak, or in a bad place to fall for propaganda that’s dangled in front of us. Some studies even try to show that fans of sports teams partake in cult-like behavior. Which, when you think about the grand scheme of things, might be true. The fact that what happened to Joy Lenz could happen to any one of us is scary. Just like I’m sure sharing her experience was too.

I love how Lenz found the strength to get out of the cult and move on with her life as well as with her faith. I love how she was able to find the good things that had happened to her and came out of her experience. She’s very resilient.

Despite all the good things I found about this book, it did have its negative moments for me, mainly Joy’s time spent on OTH.

I didn’t like how she interacted with and treated some of her fellow cast members. At times, she almost came off as seeming like she was better than some/most of the people she worked with. She often used her religious beliefs to give off this air of superiority while working on the show.

She would say things about really liking Sophia Bush but being unable to form a friendship with her because of X, Y, & Z (which would end up being some sort of shallow reason).

She pushed back a lot against what the creators/directors/producers of the show wanted her to do, then would turn around and get upset when her manager informed her that she was getting calls about how difficult Joy was to work with. What did she expect?

I found it incredibly unfair that she compared creators of shows/movies to cult leaders. More or less suggesting that they both operate the same way. That really left a sour taste in my mouth.

While I try my best not to judge people in cults, I'm only human. A lot of times Lenz would question something she was going to do based on what people around her were telling her, would admit that she wasn’t sure it was the right choice to make, and did it anyway. So, that took me back a bit. Usually when people are brainwashed to the point of believing anything a leader tells them to, they don’t question it. This led me to believe that Lenz held on to some of her own free will but so badly wanted to belong somewhere that she did things she didn’t want to do anyway, which is sad in its own right.

I also found it interesting that Lenz just woke up one day, realized this cult and the people in it were bad for her, and decided to just up and leave, despite the years of indoctrination that she suffered.

At the end of the day, I’m glad I picked this one up. I am thankful that Lenz shared her story and is making her voice heard. It brings awareness to a taboo part of life. I hope this memoir helps someone who might be going through the same thing as she did.

TLDR:A RIVETING, PASSIONATE, INFURIATING, AND BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN MEMOIR! A GREAT READ!  

As always, please remember that reading is subjective, and that’s what makes it so great. 😊