Related
Translate
Advertisements *
Elsewhere
Get RNB via RSS
 |
RNB's RSS feed What is this? |
Get RNB via Email
 |
 Subscribe by Email What is this? |
Follow: Twitter
Most Popular
This Week:
- Guyana’s Jonestown suicide site gets plaque
- Gaddafi preaches Islam to Rome beauties
- Scientology practices ‘putting people at risk’
- Recession: Muslim schools in UK under threat of closure
- Australian senator tells Parliament of widespread criminal conduct within the Church of Scientology
- When a child dies, faith is no defense
- Muslim terrorists smuggle fatwas promoting Jihad out of secure UK prisons
- Techie Holy water and geeky bishops
- Israel Charges Extremist With Attempted Murder Of Messianic Family
- Scientology’s feet held to the fire in Australia: Struggle between a church and the state
Review: The Truth Book
More articles on this topic: Book ReviewThe Truth Book
by Joy Castro
Every year growing up, Joy Castro began the school year with an explanatory note for her teachers. She was not to say the Pledge of Allegiance. If the class decorated for Christmas or Halloween, she was to be excused. Birthday celebrations and cupcakes were also forbidden, and of course, she was not to be present for any discussion of evolution. Slang was verboten, as was the phrase “good luck,” since luck doesn’t exist and has Satanic connotations. After class, she was to go to the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall and read from religious literature, or otherwise assume her appointed role within the religion as a silent, subservient Witness—the only acceptable position for a young female.
But the annual notes to her teacher didn’t outline what really went on after school—the rape, starvation, torture, and psychological abuse that Castro suffered under her evil stepfather.
When Castro was 14, her mother married her second husband, who remains nameless throughout The Truth Book, and Joy’s life became a torture story. Aside from the beatings and nightly visits to Joy’s bed, her monstrous, fundamentalist stepfather excelled at dealing out psychological torment. Joy and her brother were forbidden from making eye contact with him. He created an exacting system wherein Joy’s brother was allowed to eat precisely one-eighth of the stepfather’s portion size. (From age 14 to 16, when she lived with her stepfather, Joy did not grow an inch due to malnutrition. After running away, she quickly grew two inches). The stepfather terrorized them so badly for communicating with their actual father that they spent entire visitation weekends mute, communicating only by coughing and blinking.
The second half of The Truth Book is one of the most terrifying narratives I’ve ever read. Unfortunately, the first 97 pages of the book are unfocused and meandering; if I hadn’t been reviewing the book, I never would have continued. Beginning precisely at Chapter Eight, though, Castro’s The Truth Book soars in its nightmarish truths—an unforgettable tale of hypocrisy and cruelty.
What You Can Do From Here
|
Read More Articles On These Topics
 Share, Blog About, Bookmark, or Email This Article
Subscribe
Read Another Article
 Previous entry: Jehovah’s Witness shoots wife, self Next entry: May the force be with you
RNB Homepage with latest headlinesFind Related Information
Find Related Books
|
Share This Article
To share this page simply copy and paste one of these URL's:
