Book Review — Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIUM, the Cult That Bound My Life — Sarah Edmondson

A few weeks ago I finished watching “The Vow” on HBO and liked Sarah (and Mark) so much that when I saw she had a book I wanted to read it. She and a number of the other seemed like good people who had been caught up in something designed to trap people. While it took them awhile to realize it, they took great risks to help people and stop the cult once they did. I am very excited the show got a second season to cover the court cases but I still wanted to learn more about the people involved.

The book itself does not provide much additional information about NXIUM from the show, but the insights on her mindset and how she thought about the benefits and then the risks were interesting. In addition, Sarah provides more background on herself and some of the main people like her husband which is helpful as the show didn’t have room to go into everyone’s bio. The backgrounds are varied and are important as there is nothing in them that would be a flag or seem to make someone more of a target for a cult. This is something that the characters talk about in the show as well, but in general these were normal people looking to improve themselves and find a community, not damaged people with horrible backgrounds looking to take advantage of people. I don’t have the expertise to say that anyone can fall into a cult or scheme, but this and other stories seem to suggest that there is not one profile or type and that it can happen to almost anyone.

With Keith’s sentence of 120 years in prison a few weeks ago I am sure more books and documentaries will come out, but it was helpful to hear Sarah’s story and fill in some gaps on the people even if the events were basically covered in the show.