I had to quit this book about 2/3 of the way through. It just dragged too much. I want Ed the author to just get to the point. I do feel for her though and what she suffered in the name of "religion". That is not how Christ wanted His followers to treat others.

This book was an incredibly interesting read. I picked it up because I am utterly fascinated by all things Scientology (and not because I want to become a Scientologist, let me tell you). I wanted to get some kind of insight into this 'religion' and what it was all about. The more you know, right? I mean, how credible is a religion that is apparently based on the belief that an Evil Alien Overlord sent other aliens to Earth to die, and this is why everyone on the planet is miserable? (in a nutshell) What surprised me most about this account - as told by the niece of the leader of the Church - was nothing to do with crazy alien theories made up by a drugged up, boozed up, woman-hating sci-fi author known as L. Ron Hubbard. It had to do with the lives of those born into Scientology.

Jenna Miscavige grew up in a family that was very heavily into Scientology. At the age of approximately four-years-old, her family all moved on location with the Church so that they could better serve their cause. Jenna was subsequently separated from her family and sent to stay at a place called The Ranch. Here, she was made to perform physical labour for up to fifteen hours per day, was subjected to emotional abuse and manipulation, and was effectively brainwashed into believing that Scientology was the only way, and anyone else who said differently was basically evil. Beyond Belief is the story of how Jenna grew up in this environment - the traumas she went through, how she coped with them - until she eventually came to the realization that the Church was doing more harm than good. Her attempts to escape were quite riveting; it was almost like watching someone in a film trying to escape, and you could see the bad guy in the background sneaking up on said person. The eyes of the Church were never far, and so it wasn't until she was in her early twenties that she eventually 'made her escape', so to speak.

If anyone has any questions about what really goes on within the Scientology religion, I would definitely recommend this book. Once you're a few chapters in, you start to not care so much about crackpot alien theories, as the reality of these people's lives catches up with you. This is a thing. This is real. Real people go through this every single day, right under our noses. If that's not enough to set your teeth on edge, I don't know what will.

4.5 stars

I'm giving this book four stars for the subject matter - it was fascinating to learn about Scientology. It truly is a cult and I am amazed at what they get away with. However, the writing itself was not very good and really only deserves two stars - but the author's insight and detail make up for what her style lacks.

Interesting look inside Scientology. I wish there was more information about her life once she left the church, though.

If you enjoy reading or watching documentaries about cults (like I do) then you should add this to your reading list. It's very interesting to hear the story from someone who was brought up in Scientology and was able to escape. The writing in this book isn't that captivating, but her story is.