this memoir was haunting, well-written, funny, dark, inspiring, and such a captivating story. i felt so connected to the author, and so intrigued by everything she wrote. 
a lot of this story includes things i experienced growing up in an uber-conservative christian nationalist and mormon town, especially the doomsday prepping and distrust of government parts. however, other parts of this book left me shocked, thinking there’s no way the book could get wilder, only for it to get crazier still. 
not only did i feel so connected to the author, i felt (and feel) so proud of her. not just for making it out of this place, but for being so vulnerable. 
i also went no contact with an abusive parent who passed recently, and reading her account of being no or low contact with her family was incredibly healing to read. this has been on my TBR for years, yet i just picked it up - i think it was divine timing. 
also, a note on mormonism: this story represents fundamentalist mormons, not the average mormon. i know some were upset at how the religion was portrayed, and perhaps i would feel differently if i was mormon, but i actually found the church to be showed in a positive light. it was made clear several times that the author’s family was so different than other mormons, and i found the support the bishop offered her in college (who offered to pay for her medical bills and encouraged her not to work for her father) to be quite telling of many of the good qualities of mormons. 
i listened to this book, and highly recommend. julia whelan is a queen and makes any audiobook fantastic.