A Memoir of Child Abuse and Polygamy Inside the FLDS

Book Review: Lost Boy by Brent W. Jeffs

Reviewed By Heather O'Roark

Polygamy has been in the news a LOT in the past few years. You could even say it’s a “hot topic” for the media – anything related to polygamy, be it reality or fiction, the media gobbles up, and in turn, the public does too. No denial here – I am completely in this camp. I am totally fascinated by the idea of polygamy and by the FLDS church (the most famous current example of polygamy in the U.S.).

There were a lot of great things about this book. First, Jeffs’ story pulls you in from the beginning and the book is VERY hard to put down. His accounts of what life was like in the FLDS church were fascinating to read about, and even though I had already read these same types of stories from two other perspectives, both perspectives were female so it was very interesting to hear about his life as a child from a male’s point of view.

It was interesting to me that Jeffs questioned his family’s lifestyle even as a child; since he had the benefit of a public school education for kindergarten he saw firsthand that his way of life was not exactly “normal” and so he started having independent thoughts about polygamy even as a little kid.

I was also fascinated by the dynamics of his immediate family, which were his father, his mother, and his father’s other two wives (one of whom was also his aunt/mother’s sister). What was interesting was that since his parents had both been raised in the church, even Jeffs’ mother was excited when the second wife (her sister) married his dad. Everyone in the family truly believed in the principle, even when things got incredibly tough between the sisters conflict-wise; Brent’s mother always believed that they were doing the right thing in the eyes of God by practicing polygamy.

Brent Jeffs’ story is different from other polygamy memoirs because his family actually all left the church together. Technically, they were declared apostates and forced out, but when Jeffs left the church he took his parents, brothers, and sisters all with him, unlike most individuals who leave the church. This was interesting because even though his parents left the church, they still remained polygamous and their struggles with living in polygamy without the shelter of the FLDS were very interesting to read about.

Another thing that was different about Jeffs’ memoir was that he really “outed” Warren Jeffs, his uncle and prophet of the FLDS church for several years before finally being arrested and given a very long sentence last year.

Warren Jeffs, in addition to his many crimes against the women and children in the FLDS, raped Brent Jeffs and many other boys for years when the boys were between the ages of five and seven. In fact, Brent along with two of his brothers had repressed these memories for years because of how painful they were. Brent himself didn’t even recall the abuse until he was hypnotized in therapy as an adult. Brent and his brothers were the main force behind getting Warren Jeffs caught and captured. Because Jeffs’ memoir is so new, there was a lot of information in the book about Warren Jeffs not previously revealed in other polygamy memoirs.

One aspect of this book really fell short for me, I have to admit, and that is the quality of the writing. It seems that Jeffs had a co-writer, but even with her assistance, the book is not written all that well. Jeffs wrote in a very conversational style, which was nice when reading the book – the reader really feels like he is telling him/her his story. But, it’s almost TOO conversational – some sentences don’t make a lot of sense, there’s a lot of slang and swear words, and tons of sentence fragments, run-on sentences, etc. Personally, I don’t normally pay too much attention to writing style, but it was starting to get in the way of my enjoyment of the book in this case. I really feel bad for criticizing what was otherwise a pretty good book, but it stuck out so much to me that I feel compelled to mention it.

Generally, if you are interested in polygamy (as I know MANY of you are!) Lost Boy is well worth the read. Brent Jeffs provides a new and interesting perspective to the story of the FLDS church and his story really needs to be heard. I’m glad, for his sake and ours, that he had the opportunity to tell it.

3.5 Stars

Lost Boy (Broadway Books/ May 2009) by Brent W. Jeffs With Maia Szalavitz

Book Review: Invisible Sisters by Jessica Handler

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