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. ( )

Could not put this book down. It was definately a page turner. But it was also like watching a train wreck. You couldn't wait to read the next page, but yet you were almost afraid too. This book was unfortunately a memoir about a girl and her adopted black brother. The family moves to Indiana in the 80's, which incredibly is still rife with racism. Their mother is a psycho, and dad is violent. Especially to the adopted black brothers. It goes from the midwest to a real religious reform school in the Dominican Republic. It is also full of dark humor, which I love. ( )

An insightful look into prejudice of racial differences, even when they proclaim to be Christians... ( )

A memoir on interracial adoption, child abuse and fanatical religion. Not easy subject matter but very well written. I couldn't put it down. ( )

Wow! What a story! How this woman survived to tell about what happened to her is amazing. I have read no better book exposing the hypocrisy of rigid Christian fundamentalism, and its divergence from the true teachings of Jesus. This one is all the better because of the visceral and painful personal tragedy that unfolds for this woman in her family of origin. ( )

While Julia is white, her close relationship with David, who's black, makes them both outcasts. At home, a distant mother--more involved with her church's missionaries than with her own children--and a violent father only compound their problems. When the day comes that high-school hormones, racist brutality, and a deep-seated restlessness prove too much to bear, their parents' solution is reform school--in the Dominican Republic.

This was a very readable memoir. Although nicely written and easily readable, somehow, I still felt holes or that I didn't get enough feeling from the author. I would have loved for her to elaborate more on her parents and her relationship after she returned from the Dominican Republic. But her story was unique and heart wrenching. ( )

she stole from her brother's journal to write her memoir

A riveting, if disturbing, book. Couldn't put it down, but I was never sure if it was because I was so appalled or because I still held out hope that something would get better or someone would help. The amount of abuse and racism that occurs under the guise of Christianity is unbelievable!!!

This reminded me a lot of Glass Castle - two lives where the parents are crazy and out of control but the children prove resilient.

It would be fascinating to know more about Scheere's journey after this segment of her life - recovering from these incidents could not have been trivial!! ( )

Heartbreaking, shocking, could not stop reading it.
WOW is all I can say.
Julia's memoir to her adopted African American brother in her furvently religious household was really draining (but yet compelling) to read.
Incredible that she chose to go on, really. ( )

Julia Scheers has written a heartbreaking memoir about her childhood in a ultra-religious, racially-mixed family in 1980s Indiana. Mostly, though, what she has written is a testament to her adopted brother David, an explanation of her experience of their shared yet deeply disparate childhoods and a heart-felt account of her love for him. The book is shocking and horrific, but also deeply human, in its reminder of how much love can matter even in the most torturous of circumstances. ( )

I had a lot of trouble finishing this book. First of all, I was surprised that considering how bitter and jaded the author was against Indiana, that this book would be considered for an Elliot Rosewater nominee. The author paints a very grim picture of the Lafayette area. I was shocked at the racist portrayals that seemingly everyone in the area suposedly has. Even her school teachers were openly anti-semetic and racist against African Americans. I worked really hard to get through her awful description of Hoosier life to get to her being sent to the Dominican Republic -- that section seemed even more outrageous than the first. I did some internet searching. Lo and behold, several people who previously attended the camp backed up her story. It didn't make it any more endearing to me. I think most of what she wrote would have been better for a private journal to be shared with a mental health councillor rather than the general public. I understand that she went through a horrible ordeal, but her vitriol was almost unbearable. ( )

Scheeres recounts her late teen years, first in her fundamentalist Christian home, dominated by her unloving mother and violent father, and later, in the oppressive Caribbean reform school to which she and her adopted brother David were sent. A gripping read. ( )

Emotionally draining but still an outstanding book. ( )

a gripping, painful, and incredibly well-written memoir about religious fundamentalism, family dysfunction, and the devotion the author feels for her younger brother ( )

Riveting. Heart breaking. Shocking. Difficult to put down. Very different from what I thought it would be, but a wonderful memoir of a 16 year old girl and her brother, revealing the unseemly underside of evangelical Christianity, racism, and parenting.

Don't miss the chance to read this one. ( )

Highly engaging writing, even when addressing such painful subjects as racial discrimination, sexual abuse, and religious beliefs that strangle the free spirit. This author's love for her brother and growing understanding of his experience is humbling. A note to protect a "spoiler"- do not read the Reader's Guide at the back until you have finished the book. I was so satisfied by how the story unfolded and if I had read that first, it would have changed the experience. Highly recommended. ( )

This book is so well written and the story Scheeres tells is so riveting that I (almost literally) couldn't put it down and ended up reading it all in a 24 hour period. While the things she went through are pretty terrible, the book is also filled with hope for a better future and love for her brother David. Scheeres excels at conjuring her 17 year old self and writes with a very engaging voice. ( )

Over the last decade the slogan "What Would Jesus Do?" has become a motto of many Christians. Sadly, it preceded the time period covered in Jesus Land, a harrowing memoir by Julie Scheeres. But, then again, maybe it would have made no difference.

Jesus Land is a story of racism, religion and dysfunction in a family that had all the right appearances. In fact, most people probably thought the Scheeres family was a typical "good Christian family." They attended a Calvinist church every Sunday. Dad was a surgeon. Mom was active with church and supported church missionaries. Many in the church are impressed that Mom and Dad adopted some black children into their white bread home to give them a better life.

Yet as Scheeres makes plain, the surface was merely a veneer over spiritual and emotional rot. This was, in fact, a family whose children were swallowed up by dysfunction. Granted, there was plenty of the Bible, Christian music and religion in the house. What was missing was parental love and nurturing.

Balance of review at http://prairieprogressive.com/?p=603

Critiquing a memoir is difficult, because it's hard not to consider the life lived as well as how it's presented when evaluating it.

In that light the second half of the book is more engaging than the first. I'm only a few years older than JS, so the midwestern hick world she describes is somewhat familiar and depressing. But I certainly never went to Christian reform school and found that part of the story gripping.

The big story, of course, is composed of racism, religious fanaticism, and family dynamics - topics which will never go out of style. If this was a novel, maybe there would be a way to have a really satisfying retribution scene against any or all of these evils. In memoirs, it seems that the narrator's usual revenge is limited to merely living well. And this is as it should be - I don't know if dramatic smiting of enemies is a therapeutically useful reaction - but it does make for a possibly-less-satisfying read.

My son's English teacher considers readers like me to be "plot junkies", and that may be true. If what you ask from your book is a thoughtful revealing of humanity and its lessons, then this may be a 5-star book. Lowbrow that I am, I found it just a bit unsatisfying. ( )