This book was written so eloquently it was hard to put down. The voice of the young girl just made you think she was right in front of you. Laughter at time and so sad at other times make this woman's life and memoir a fast read. I read primarily memoirs and this is definitely one of my favorites. The epilogue made me gasp! ( )

A disturbing memoir about a teenager growing up with two adopted black brothers in rural Indiana. one brother and the author are sent to a Christian Reform school in the Domincan Republic where they survive an incredibly abusive program.

This novel was really well written and engaging. I think it is the first time I have read a memoir and kept thinking to myself - I really really wish this was fiction - much of it is too horrible to contemplate someone living through. The author has great tenacity though and is able to write about her life with great clarity and insight into those who treated her so poorly in her younger years. I hope that she has a great life now filled with people who love her... no child should grow up the way she did. ( )

Read it now. Don't read any of the info on the jacket cover. Just read the book. ( )

Unputdownable. Devastating, True. ( )

This book reduced me to tears at several points, probably because of my several shared experiences with the author. Jesus Land is the well written story of growing up under an oppressive, twisted, and abusive form of religion in America's Heartland. It's the story about how religion can bring out the best and the worst in people -- although mostly the latter is drawn out of the characters in this book.

Scheeres story takes her from the Hoosier State to the Dominican Republic with only one constant in her life: her beloved brother, David, her adopted black brother. Not only is this memoir about the effect abusive religion can have on a young psyche, it's about the bond that develops between two people who go through that experience together. ( )