A wonderfully written memoir about a girl who grew up, the youngest of seven, in a fundamentalist Mormon family living off-grid in rural Idaho. She challenges their family's outlook on the world and insists on an outside education and attends BYU, Cambridge, and Harvard.
"I had started on a path to awareness, had perceived something elemental about my brother, my father, myself. I had discerned how we had been sculpted by a tradition given to us by others, a tradition of which we were either willfully or accidentally ignorant. I had begun to understand that we lent our voices to a discourse whose sole purpose was to dehumanize and brutalize others - because nurturing that discourse was easier because retaining power always feels like the way forward."
It is, at times, a difficult read as there are many descriptions of violence, abuse, and neglect within the family. It is quite dark to read as she describes her struggles, over and over again, to deal with the impact these events have had on her as she tries to grow beyond them.
Whitney is a wife, mom, and avid reader. She is working on reading a stack of books this year and happily sharing a synopsis so we can find our favorites!
