Escape, Carolyn Jessop
Escape, Carolyn Jessop
17 Rating(s)
List: $22.50 | Sale: $15.75
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Escape

Bestseller

Author: Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer

Narrator: Ann Marie Lee

Unabridged: 15 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/16/2007


Synopsis

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. 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 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. But in 2003, Carolyn chose freedom over fear and fled her home with her eight children. Escape exposes a world tantamount to a prison camp, created by religious fanatics. Against this background, Carolyn Jessop’s flight takes on an extraordinary, inspiring power. 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 its notorious leader, Warren Jeffs.

About The Author

Carolyn Jessop was born into the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—a group splintered from and renounced by the Mormon Church—and spent most of her life in Colorado City, Arizona, the main base of the FLDS. Since leaving the group in 2003, she has lived in West Jordan, Utah, with her eight children.Laura Palmer is the author of Shrapnel in the Heart: Letters and Remembrances from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and has collaborated on a number of other books, including the New York Times bestseller Escape and To Catch a Predator with NBC’s Chris Hansen. She lives in New York City.Ann Marie Lee is a Los Angeles–based actress with television credits that include ERLaw and Order: Criminal Intent, and Nip/Tuck. Her stage performances for Broadway national tours and regional theater include Peter PanAs You Like ItHeartbreak House, and The Cherry Orchard.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Danielle on August 02, 2020

I’m drawn to these books about crazy religious cults. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I live in Utah, so I’ve seen polygamist families in the community. The women are always so quiet and quick to look away. It’s sad, that they have very little confidence and are entirely codependent to their ‘priesthood holder’. 👎🏻They are b......more

Goodreads review by Lena on September 30, 2009

Carolyn Jessop's story of her life in the polygamous community the FLDS is one of those books that is simultaneously hard to read and difficult to put down. It's hard to read because her tale is one of non-stop abuse, from the apocalyptic nightmare that was drilled into her head as a child to the re......more

Goodreads review by Laura on June 20, 2008

I sat up til 2 A.M. finishing this book. It was an intense experience. It made me grieve for the inequities in my own culture between men and women along with the fear that holds me down. Having lived near Colorado City, reading this book made me look back on my experience living in St. George, Utah......more

Goodreads review by Libbie Hawker on February 01, 2013

All right. We're going an even three on this one. I finished Escape a few days ago and felt a little confused about my feelings over this book. I even mentioned this in a phone conversation with another writer-friend. The story is compelling. It would be compelling if it were fiction; the fact that it......more

Goodreads review by Robin on April 30, 2008

Have you ever read a book that completely encompassed your entire life? That is precisely how I felt about "Escape". Even when I was not reading it it would constantly be in the back of my mind. As I took my kid's to the park and then to Target for a special treat I would think, "How horrible that C......more


Quotes

"Escape provides an astonishing look behind the tightly drawn curtains of the FLDS Church, one of the most secretive religious groups in the United States. The story Carolyn Jessop tells is so weird and shocking that one hesitates to believe a sect like this, with 10,000 polygamous followers, could really exist in 21st-century America. But Jessop’s courageous, heart-wrenching account is absolutely factual. This riveting book reminds us that truth can indeed be much, much stranger than fiction."
—Jon Krakauer, Author of Under the Banner of Heaven, Into Thin Air, and Into the Wild