Daughters of Zion: A Family's Conversion to Polygamy

After reading all the books I could get my hands on about Polygamy, the LDS and Mormonism, I found this book very refreshing. Not that the other women who had the courage to escape and then write about their horrible and harrowing life were not powerful. But this book takes you into the second generation of the cult. The children born to these men and women. Kim Taylor talks so openly and honestly about her whole life, not just bites and pieces. She brings it all together. The LeBaron brothers along with the tragedy they brought on themselves and so many others. About the life of a little girl, teenager and then a woman in the places like Colony LeBaron and Los Molinos. She made me feel like a fly on the wall. Watching while all the other real people in all the other books I had read moved around me alive and speaking. And she did this while also writing about and dealing with her own demons. This book moved along so fast, I was at the end, sadly, before I knew it.

Kim Taylor's life started out typically enough in small town America in the 50's and early 60's. Until the day her family became caught up in the LeBaron clan's fundamentalist cult, whose leader saw himself as a "prophet of God". Joel LeBaron's charisma and seeming goodness drew people to him and involved them in his plan to create a "heaven on earth" at his colony in Mexico. He, along with brothers Ervil and Verlan convinced their followers that is was God's will that they live a polygamous lifestyle. Taking lust and trying to turn it into a Biblical principle caused nothing but pain and emptiness for the many wives and children involved. Power struggles between brothers Joel and Ervil take Taylor's saga on a deadly turn. In an era when most girls Kim's age were worried about what they should wear to the Prom and getting their homework done on time, Kim Taylor was often responsible for the care of her sisters' many children, running her own household, and making grownup decisions. During an tumultuous time in Kim's life, she traveled with her parents to the states to help her grandfather. The goodness and manly strength of her grandfather and the love he had for her was in sharp contrast to what she had been experiencing in Mexico as a part of the LeBaron cult. This caused her to question everything she had been believing. I couldn't put this book down. (I stayed up till 1:00 A.M. more that once!) It is well written and includes suspense, intrigue, romance and even murder. I felt like I was experiencing everything right along with Kim. It was a world I didn't know existed.

A rare nonfiction that reads like a novel. The true accounts of a young womans captivating and troubling past, made it hard to put down. I would find myself in the wee hours of the night smiling at her sweet memories and wiping away tears at her difficult ones. It is truly a moving and inspirational story. I have recommended it to all I know.

When I first started reading this book I was immediately struck with the freshness and charm of the first few chapters. THEN the truly intriguing tale began! I simply could not put this book down as the fascinating details of Kim's unimaginable new life in a polygamous colony are revealed. Simply an extremely captivating and amazingly unusual true story!

I couldn't put the book down from start to finish. Kim is a wonderful storyteller and packs her book with details of women living in polgamy. Loneliness, hunger, and lack of medical care were only a few of the things these women and children had to endure. But, Kim was able to find humor, freindships and some bright moments among the poverty in their Mexican colony. The contrast of her Godly Grandparents commitment to each other and their children was a path for her to follow to her own special relationship with her husband and children. This book is an inspiring read.