Girl at the End of the World
My Escape from Fundamentalism in Search of Faith with a Future
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4.3 • 20 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
I was raised in a homegrown, fundamentalist Christian group—which is just a shorthand way of saying I’m classically trained in apocalyptic stockpiling, street preaching, and the King James Version of the Bible. I know hundreds of obscure nineteenth-century hymns by heart and have such razor sharp “modesty vision” that I can spot a miniskirt a mile away.
Verily, verily I say unto thee, none of these highly specialized skills ever got me a job, but at least I’m all set for the end of the world. Selah.
A story of mind control, the Apocalypse, and modest attire.
Elizabeth Esther grew up in love with Jesus but in fear of daily spankings (to “break her will”). Trained in her family-run church to confess sins real and imagined, she knew her parents loved her and God probably hated her. Not until she was grown and married did she find the courage to attempt the unthinkable. To leave.
In her memoir, readers will recognize questions every believer faces: When is spiritual zeal a gift, and when is it a trap? What happens when a pastor holds unchecked sway over his followers? And how can we leave behind the harm inflicted in the name of God without losing God in the process?
By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Girl at the End of the World is a story of the lingering effects of spiritual abuse and the growing hope that God can still be good when His people fail.
Includes reading group discussion guide and interview with the author
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a somewhat predictable first memoir, 30-something blogger Esther describes growing up in a fundamentalist cult her term called The Assembly. As a child, she learns an "apocalypse survival plan" and is regularly spanked. In Esther's adolescence, The Assembly's cracks begin to show. Allowed to go to public high school so that she could convert her peers, Esther realizes that many kids whom her family describes as heathen unbelievers are in fact quite devout, and she is distracted from the straight and narrow by boys. By age 18, Esther feels trapped and sometimes thinks dying would be better than life with her fundamentalist family. Still she perseveres, marrying, at 20, a boy her parents approve of. Five years later, Esther, with her husband and children, leaves The Assembly. A therapist teaches her about disassociation and triggers. Eventually, Esther, by then a mother of seven, connects with Mary, is drawn to Catholicism, and learns about the importance of grace. Esther's descriptions of her claustrophobic childhood faith are clear and compelling; her account of the faith she found as an adult is, however, less insightful.
Customer Reviews
It was a fair read
Pretty well written
I was there too!!!
I was amazed when I came upon this book because I used to be a part of the same cult. I can relate to just about everything written. The Assemblies practically drove me to suicide and I am still trying to regain my mental balance nearly 30 years later. Thank you for this honest book. I don't feel as alone anymore.