Cult Insanity Review & Giveaway

Cult Insanity : A Memoir of Polygamy, Prophet and Blood Atonement
By: Irene Spencer
Publisher: Center Street
Available: August 12, 2009

My Rating:







About the Book:

Life for Irene Spencer was a series of devastating disappointments and hardships. Irene's first book, Shattered Dreams, is the staggering chronicle of herstruggle 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.

My Thoughts:

If you're like me and have read Irene's first book "Shattered Dreams" and were fascinated, then you'll most-likely find "Cult Insanity" an interesting addition. It's in this book that she talks in depth of Ervil's evil and shares her thoughts on being raised in polygamy.

There are some difference that I found throughout the two books, which confused me a bit. I found myself going back and forth comparing facts that I knew I had read differently in her first book. These facts do not take away from the terror that she went through nor the interest of the story.

Just like the first, I found myself with my mouth gaped open trying to even comprehend going through something like this. It's hard to relate to such an unbelievable life these people live. Their beliefs and daily ways are just so opposite of the ones most of us are brought up with. I believe this is the main draw to the book itself. This is Irene's PERSONAL view, which makes the story all the more tragic in it's realism.

Ervil would die in the Utah State prison in 1981 after killing a total of 28 people (members of the family, friends and church). But the killings didn't stop there. His children continued to kill for him after his death. He had even left them a list! I was awe-struck!

I did find that some of the chapters didn't really add to the story at all. In fact, they could be skipped all together. But, there was a list of all the people killed over the twenty years (1971-1991) by either Ervil or his cult group.

The facts in this story were both fascinating and unbelievable and author Irene Spenser does an incredible job of telling it! I definite must read.

About the Author:

Irene Spencer resides in Northern California with her husband of twenty-one years, Hector J. Spencer. During the twenty-eight years of her first marriage to a polygamous husband, Irene gave birth to thirteen children (all single births). She additionally adopted a newborn girl, who became her ninth child.

Irene has 123 grandchildren and sixty great-grandchildren. Among her many talents, she is an accomplished seamstress, a great cook, and is fluent in Spanish, and she has traveled to twenty-three countries and twenty-three states speaking on polygamy and related issues.

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