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| Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs | 
 enlarge | Authors: Elissa Wall, Lisa Pulitzer
Publisher: William Morrow
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy Used: $5.45
You Save: $20.50 (79%)
New (72) Used (77) Collectible (2) from $5.45
Avg. Customer Rating:  79 reviews
Sales Rank: 5231
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.4 x 1.5
ISBN: 0061628018
Dewey Decimal Number: 289.3092
EAN: 9780739496343
ASIN: 0061628018
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: 1 page has a smudge
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Remarkable Journey--Worth 10 Stars! August 18, 2008
To give this book 5 stars dose this book an injustice! It's a 10 Plus!! It is the true story of Elissa Wall, who grew up in the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints ("FLDS") and was taught to believe all she was told. You will laugh and recoil in anger at what she goes through. Then she finds the courage to go to court and face the "Prophet."
You are a remarkabe woman, Elissa! Thanks for sharing your story. Everyone will enjoy this book. It reads like fiction, but you know it's not. I hated to see it end. It's just incredible!
FLDS not synonymous with Christianity August 20, 2008
I am only halfway through with this book but I am enthralled and can't put it down. I came here to see what some of the reviews were. I am troubled that others might think that the FLDS, which is a serious cult, is in any way related to Christianity. Nowhere in the book yet has she mentioned the word Jesus or His death on the cross to save us from our sins. THAT, my friends, is what true Christianity is about: a personal relationship with Jesus Christ for those who accept his loving sacrifice. So far in this book, only Warren Jeffs, a mere man, and his father Rulon Jeffs are held up in such a godlike status. Woe to those who have been so deceived. I pray that Elissa's story will help others to break free of this dangerous cult.
Powerful indictment of the FLDS August 21, 2008
Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall is the book that tells the tale of the girl who put Warren Jeffs behind bars. Elissa was raised by the polygamous group known as the FLDS, and at the age of 14 was married to her first cousin by Warren Jeffs, despite her pleas and tears begging for more time or at least a different groom. She regularly faced rape and abuse by her husband Allen, until she found freedom and strength through her siblings who had left the group and eventually fell in love with another former FLDS member. They are now married with two small children. When authorities were looking for a way to bring Jeffs to justice, it was Elissa's case that they used and her testimony that convicted the cult leader and sent him to prison. Elissa's story is heartbreaking. The FLDS regularly manipulated families, pulling them apart and trying to fit wives and children into new families, even telling them that God changed their DNA to fit into the new "father's" genes. As a child raised within the group, she saw firsthand the damage done to her father and mother, both of whom remain in the religion. Elissa's rise to independence is a terrific story for all women, and she has a wonderful voice.
AWESOME. A must read!!!!! August 24, 2008
This book was outstanding. The courage it took for Elissa Wall to write this book about her life. This was a book I couldnt put down. I would reading it, and then look up and it would be 2 or 3 in the morning. I brought the book everywhere with me, just so when i had a few minutes i could continue reading! I would recommand this book to any one that wants a good read!!!
Courageous Story About Overcoming Abuse and Brainwashing August 26, 2008
Elissa was forced to marry her 19-year-old first cousin at age 14 while living in a polygamous sect. Eventually a nearby stranger helped her break free at age 18, after which she provided crucial court testimony against sect leader Warren Jeffs.
Elissa remembers when her father, a respected geologist, engineer and entrepreneur, obtained his third wife. Having three wives was required to achieve the highest level of heaven.
Two wives had already created a climate of suspicion and distrust involving issues such as parenting style, spending priorities, and the access to the lone husband. Sect fathers lived in fear of local prophets - if considered a threat to the faith they could be expelled from the colony and lose both their family and home. Not being able to bring peace to a home could also qualify for expulsion. (This happened to Elissa's father, who then spent much of his life attempting to regain them.) The sect prophet also had the power to compel wage-earners to quit their job and move closer, even to sell a business to designated buyers (eg. the prophet's relatives), with most of the proceeds going to the church.
Members were expected to dedicate Saturdays laboring on churchwork projects. Outside "non-worthy" books and TV were banned.
There were 22 children in the family at the time. Elissa went to private sect school in a converted 20+ bedroom home. Her mother was an herbalist, and as a consequence Elissa rarely saw a doctor. Her older sister was married to the 81-year-old prophet.
Women had no rights vs. a husband. Elissa eventually recognized that getting married and having children was a sect means of disciplining - she would then be under the threat of having her own children taken away. Regardless, by age 16 she had had 2 miscarriages and a stillbirth.
Eventually the people Jeffs had abused got together for revenge; they saw Elissa as a valuable tool to be used through the courts. Jeffs was arrested, tried and convicted of being an accomplice to rape of a minor, and sentenced to a minimum of ten years in prison, with another trial scheduled in Arizona. However, it was also disconcerting to read that some in the community then refused to work with her husband.
Elissa is to be commended for rebelling, taking a public stand against Jeffs and the sect, and helping end or at least curtail these practices. Additional "good news" is that rebellion ran in her family - her brothers and several sisters also escaped, despite their parents' strong opposition.
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