Natalie GrandRecensioni

Such a creative way to tell your personal experience in the cult. This is such a good book for someone who is curious about what ex-JWs have/had to deal with when sadly they still have relatives involved with the cult.

I was able to relate to the author's experience, as I personally decided to part ways with this cult a few years ago. Love how it makes it very clear that they are lovely people when they want to convert you, but as soon as you "rebel" you become their worse enemy.

While reading this book it really made me think how was I ever involved with these people and how toxic they are. I'm so relived and thankful that I was able to leave, and my family also decided to leave with me.

I was raised a Jehovah's Witness and I am an African American. This book was needed for young adults today! So many families and youth are affected by this mega cult. Ya- it is not as bad as how the women are treated in the middle east, but if we don't keep an eye on organizations of mega cults like this that let men judge and punish children and men, they could infiltrate in our government. Natalie told her story in a tasteful, light, fun, romantic nature and her grueling childhood was told in a subtle comedic fashion. I enjoyed the diversity and Natalie nailed the money culture and the gossipy nature of these miserable kingdom hall members. I want all youths to read!

There is a reason this graphic novel keeps getting GOLD awards for graphic novels. It is because Natalie's true story is not depressing, it is a young romantic interacial love story with a back drop of an abusive mega cult. I found this book to be refreshing and timely of a global social awareness of how women and children are really treated in mega cults or regimes. This is something you want young girls to read, so that they never fall prey to an abusive, time sucking cult that will only suppress them and cover abuse.

A roman à clef in graphic novel form about the author's experiences in leaving the Jehovah's Witnesses. There is some interesting information but it gets lost in a script that flits all over the place and artwork with layouts so busy and random it's hard at times to determine the right reading order of the panels.

The art is nice panel to panel and would have looked so good on pages of six panels with real gutter borders instead of nine to nineteen panels with black separating lines.

I think the script was trying to lighten the heavy cult stuff with some sort of Sex and the City or CW soap opera tone, but I just found it tiresome to read as it jumped around between questioning religious doctrines and swooning over the dreamy doctor. I had to stop in the middle to read something else just to shake off my growing frustration.

In the end, for all the accusations of being a cult, it was hard to separate out what makes this crappy religion significantly worse than all the other crappy religions out there. There are a ton of similarities to the Catholic church in which I was raised and which I deserted decades ago. Organized religion is rife with abuse and scams and other garbage best left on the curb.

This book is many things! It is a comedy, a romance and I learned a lot about the weird people sitting in front of grocery stores and knocking on my door. I want all young women to read this! Cult prevention is so important. Dreams, Careers, Education, Retirements, Families are being destroyed over this cult. It is a hamster wheel religion and these people are not saving for their retirement, health care or investing in their children's education because armageddon is ANY DAY. Sad!

I purchased because I wanted to support this author's passion in bringing awareness to protecting children in cults. Wow, I was very surprised how impactful and delightful this book was. The author dances with the subjects of how children are excused and interrogated in abuse cases. The best part of book is that these were regular girls and each wanted to improve themselves and wanted a better world. It is adult content, but yet catchy and artsy enough to draw in the youth and I will be having my teenage daughter read it as well. She was wanting to snag my copy because of the art and fun adventure the main character had.

My mother never spoke of her painful past being a Jehovah and my grandparents never wanted to meet me or accept my mother's child out of wedlock. But after I read this book, I felt proud that my mother protected me from abusive religions such as this. So I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend for anyone who has been around Jehovah's to read, because there is many things Jehovah's don't tell you when they are trying to recruit you. Beautiful illustrations! There was mini stories and themes on each page, the details were great.

I am the author of the first GRAPHIC Novel for the anti-cult community. This is 4 women born, raised and married in the Jehovah's Witness cult. So many ex-JWs found the book relatable, many laughed and cried. I tried not to make that serious and more an educational, healing, comedic experience that there is life after a cult. People in reality this abusive religion hinders children's education, they work for this large corporation as volunteers at very young ages, I preached in my classroom in primary school and many youths are shunned from being disfellowshipped as a minor. Their leaders and parents don't usually report child abuse, because they don't trust secular authorities and they could get shunned for giving the company a bad name. More awareness is needed for these oppressed women in this cult, that never progresses. Women wear head coverings still in this international company.

I am the author of this 3 year passion project. After many years of seeing countless struggling good woman being treated so poorly (better off dead) by their family and once close friends, I felt the need for healing comedic and having a colorful educational tale of the wacky upbringing, JW marriage culture, common incidents to us as being raised as Jehovah's Witness, divorced as a JW, married to an elder. It touches topics such as smoking, abortion, birth control, JW's wacky and unfair judicial system, the recruiting process, the love bombing process and the parental conditional love that most sadly experience in a suppressive, strict religion environment and has a guidebook narrative of how to fade out. I also felt it was something that people should educate themselves that what might look acceptable when you are love bombed on a door knock, there is a whole other side of why people are actually in the faith and are just pretending to be happy. The beauty of life is that we are all at different stages, have individual personality, desires, goals and dreams and this is all presented in the book with the woven tales of Talia and her dear friends. That is why cults are bad I feel, we are all different and we should learn to trust ourselves and be able to explore our individual desires and purpose in life.