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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.

Average Customer Rating:

Very interesting read	Customer Rating:
I enjoyed the book very much. At times I was so repulsed by the behaviors of Jessop's then husband, I was reminded of a train wreck that you just can't keep from gawking at. Ms. Jessop is indeed a plucky woman, and her story deserves a listen.

Page-turning, Disturbing

Customer Rating:

Jessop's ESCAPE is a haunting trip into the secret sect of FLDS (Fundamental Latter Day Saints). It tells her story of being a plural wife to a man many many years older than she was...a marriage arranged by her father for the betterment of his career. This book was recommended to me by a good friend. When reading this I kept having to remind myself that what I was reading was TRUE. That this was NOT a novel because sometimes what was happening to this woman seemed beyond comprehension. However after settling into this story you find that this is stuff that simply couldn't be made up. I highly suggest anyone read this book. It gives a good history to FLDS as well as a brutally honest look into the life of a couple of families. What you will read, however, will leave you with a knot in your stomach. It is very hard to put down once you are in it because you want to know what is going to happen next. I have suggested this book to several people and everyone of them read just as voraciously as I did.

Great book. Chilling and amazing.	Customer Rating:
Though it had received great reviews, I took it them with a grain of salt. Quickly after I began the book, I was captivated. It's amazing and sad that cults like FLDS can exert such power over people. Highly recommended.

Mind blowing!

Customer Rating:

I read this book in a day and a half, and it made me want to puke. It did make me cry many times. I can't believe what an evil man her ex-husband is, and the cruelty of Barbara Jessop. I hope Karma comes around to both of them and they get what they deserve. It is incredible that this is the 21st century and there is a society like this where women are pieces of meat. My neighbor from Germany, who is living here in the US for one year, just read this book- her first book she has read in English, and recommended it to me at the time the Texas raids were going on. I'm glad I finally got around to it. Well worth a read.

Great content, okay writing.	Customer Rating:
The writing is not especially sophisticated, but simple and easy to follow. I hardly ever find myself so captivated by a book I read it from beginning to end without skipping the middle, but this one I did - in a single evening.