Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamist Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs

Elissa Wall details her childhood within the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) under the absolute authority of prophet Warren Jeffs. At age fourteen, Wall was forced into a marriage with her nineteen-year-old cousin, a union mandated by Jeffs despite her pleas. The narrative documents the psychological coercion used by the cult, the physical and emotional trauma of her marriage, and her eventual decision to flee the compound. Her testimony served as the primary evidence in the 2007 criminal trial that led to Jeffs' conviction for being an accomplice to rape.

Readers interested in the inner workings of closed religious societies and true crime find a primary source account of structural abuse and state prosecution. The text provides a window into the legal challenges of fighting a high-control group from the inside. Those who study the sociology of fringe religious movements read this to understand the indoctrination methods and survival strategies of women in isolation. Readers finish the book with a factual grasp of how the FLDS functioned and the legal mechanisms that finally held its leadership accountable.

Practical, inward-looking and clear-cut; an easy read.

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