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Book Review of Jesus Land: A Memoir

Jesus Land: A Memoir
Shervivor avatar reviewed on + 97 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3


I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I could definitely relate to being a teenager in the 80's, but I could not relate to the racial disparities. This book really shows the racial divide, especially as it occurred in the Midwest in the 70's and 80's.

The author is able to show both sides of the racial coin, which I have never read so eloquently before. She is able to allow us to view how her adopted black brother, David, was treated as well as explaining her own feelings of guilt and shame because she had a black brother that was treated differently then herself, even by her parents.

This is a wonderful memoir of a girl that was born into an abusive ultra Christian home, with two black brothers, an absent father, and a mother that never once said "I love you" to her children. Acting as a normal teen she gets into trouble and is then sent to a evangelical reform school in the Dominican Republic.