The Printed Page

Title: Cult Insanity: A Memoir of Polygamy, Prophets, and Blood Atonement
Author/website: Irene Spencer
330 pages
Publisher: Center Street
Publication date: August ’09
Genre: Memoir
Would I recommend it: Definitely
Journal notes: I read her first book, Shattered Dreams, last year and it made my favorite books list. The subject matter in both these books is beyond fascinating. Cult Insanity will also be going onto my favs list. There’s not really a lot I can add, as her books say it all, except if your interest has ever been piqued in any way by the stories surrounding the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints practices you need to read her books. Her story is an incredible tale of survival in the most bizarre circumstances. I realize to the followers of this faith your religious practices don’t seem bizarre but for those of us on the outside looking in things come across as very foreign and in direct opposition to most mainstream beliefs. I can almost guarantee that once you start reading Cult Insanity you won’t be able to close the book until you’ve turned the last page. You don’t have to but I suggest you read Shattered Dreams before reading Cult Insanity. (I also highly recommend Escape by Carolyn Jessop)

Life for Irene Spencer was a series of devastating disappointments and hardships. Irene’s first book, Shattered Dreams, is the staggering chronicle of her struggle to provide for her children in abject poverty and feelings of abandonment each time her husband left to be with one of his other wives. Irene was raised to believe polygamy was the way of life necessary for her ticket to heaven.

The hard knocks of her environment were just the beginning of Irene’s shocking tale. Insanity ran rampant in her husband’s family and was the source of inconceivable events that unfolded throughout Irene’s adult life. CULT INSANITY takes readers deeper into her story to uncover the outrageous behavior of her brother-in-law Ervil — a self-proclaimed prophet who determined he was called to set the house of God in order — and how he terrorized their colony. Claiming to be God’s avenger and to have a license to kill in the name of God, Ervil ordered the murders of friends and family members, eliminating all those who challenged his authority.

For those who were gripped by Shattered Dreams, the rest of the story will blow them away. CULT INSANITY is a riveting, terrifying memoir of polygamist life under the tyranny of a madman.

(Cult Insanity: A Memoir of Polygamy, Prophets, and Blood Atonement was provided to me by Anna of Hachette Book Group. I was not paid and the book is being shipped to another book blogger. )