Stolen Innocence

I started this book 3 weeks ago and found it to be really hard to get into. I found it to be redundant throughout the book, heck even at the end, she was repeating was was said several times in the beginning. I think I would have been more interested in the book had I not known much about the FLDS. I've had the opportunity to talk with someone that left the church and with that conversation, my curiosity was piqued and I learned much more. Of course, with the children that were recently taken, it was yet another opportunity to learn of their beliefs.

I put the book aside for almost two weeks before picking it up again. Once I was about a third of the way through the book it started to get a little more interesting. I've been done with it for several days now and have pondered what it was I would have liked to have read. I think it all comes down to I wanted more emotion and feeling. While she writes of her frustrations, she is so removed from her writing that I had trouble identifying with her. I can't help but to wonder if it is because of how they are told to "keep sweet". There is a brief paragraph when she is writing in her journal after being married and she isn't writing the most pleasant thoughts and her mother advises her not to write such things because you don't know who will read it. I can't help but wonder if as she wrote the book, to some extent, she practiced the "keep sweet" idea that she was brought up with.

Would I recommend the book, not necessarily. Yet, I'm loaning it to several people that are interested in reading it. It is well written - I just hoped for more than I got.