Stolen Innocence, by Elissa Wall with Lisa Pulitzer (Book Review)

In reading about Elissa Wall's experiences, it amazed me to think that this sort of thing goes on in America. I had heard of her case and other stories of polygamous sects, of course, but still.

Elissa is the child of Douglas Wall and his second wife. She is the 11th child of her mother, who eventually had 14 kids. Her father had more kids with other wives as well. In the household where Elissa spent most of her childhood (an abbreviated childhood due to her forced marriage at age 14), Elissa had two mothers, her biological mother as well as her father's first wife, Audrey. A third wife was added later as well. They belonged to the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a group that broke away from the Mormom church. The kids all went to a private academy for FLDS kids. FLDS members wore long church undergarments that covered their entire bodies from neck to ankle, and the girls and women wore long pioneer-style dresses all year long, even in the heat of summer.

Elissa's was not a happy home. There was much discord, possibly because her father and his first wife had not grown up in polygamous families. Her mother had and knew they could work, but the discord worsened until finally the sect leader had her mother and all her mother's children placed with another man, as was the custom in the church. If there were problems at home, the man was blamed for not controlling the wives. There was no such thing as dating in the sect either. The sect leader would supposedly get a revelation from God about whom someone belonged with.

Elissa was very upset about having to leave her father. She did get to go to a public school for a year when she moved into her new father's home, and there she discovered a love of learning and a sense of life outside the FLDS. However, this was short-lived, as the sect leader Warren Jeffs ordered church members to take their kids out of public schools.

Elissa had a lot of rebellious siblings, which may be why Jeffs decided she needed to be married early, at age 14. Elissa did not want to be married so early and was horrified at his choice, her first cousin, 19-year-old Allen. She and her mother and some other family members tried to talk to Jeffs about it, but he wouldn't change his mind. After the marriage took place, Elissa had to endure repeated rapes at the hands of her husband.

It wasn't easy for Elissa to break free and find a life for herself outside the FLDS. She is a tremendously courageous individual who had to make some really tough decisions. She had to go against everything she'd been taught to believe in order to break free.

I found this book hard to put down because I wanted Elissa to escape the awful situation she was in already. The story was very interesting, though. Not exactly your typical American childhood. Elissa Wall is using part of the profits from this book, money from a lawsuit she brought against the FLDS system, and donations to set up a fund called the MJ fund, which will help former FLDS girls and women start lives for themselves.