Daughters Of Zion: A Family's Conversion To Polygamy [Paperback]

Kim Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 2008

A memoir of misguided faith, unholy violence, and spiritual awakening. An odyssey of mayhem, murder, and tragedy, is what Kim's family unknowingly embarks upon in their quest for a peaceful existence in an unorthodox religious society. It is on a deceptively fine spring day, at the tender age of seven, that Kim is uprooted from her comfortable middle class home in Utah to be moved into a polygamous colony in Mexico. From that day forward her life takes dramatic twists and turns as, one by one, her older sisters become plural wives and Kim herself is eventually courted by the polygamist fathers of some of her good friends. Her relatively peaceful world is shattered when violence erupts within the ranks of the priesthood leaving her sister a widow, and Kim fears for her own life as some of her closest friends become murderers in the name of religion. In the end, her family is devastated by a tragedy of a more insidious evil.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kim Taylor resides in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their youngest son. She has two grandchildren.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Rogue Hill Publishing LLC (November 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615257011
• ISBN-13: 978-0615257013
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #341,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book you will not be able to put down., February 28, 2009

By 

J. Avalos "book lover" (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Daughters Of Zion: A Family's Conversion To Polygamy (Paperback)

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.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Daughters of Zion, March 29, 2009

By 

Pamela Robarge (New York) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Daughters Of Zion: A Family's Conversion To Polygamy (Paperback)

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.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A RARE FIND!!, February 11, 2009

By 

Hosannah Mccully - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Daughters Of Zion: A Family's Conversion To Polygamy (Paperback)

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.