"Although this is Mestyanek Young's first time narrating, listeners will appreciate hearing this deeply personal story told by the author herself. Share with fans of Tara Westover's Educated and Deborah Feldman's Unorthodox. Memoir readers will want to check this one out."- Library Journal "A painful and propulsive memoir delivered in the honest tones of a woman who didn't always think she'd live to tell her story." â??The New York Times This program is read by the author. In the vein of Educated and The Glass Castle, Daniella Mestyanek Young's Uncultured is more than a memoir about an exceptional upbringing, but about a woman who, no matter the lack of tools given to her, is determined to overcome. Behind the tall, foreboding gates of a commune in Brazil, Daniella Mestyanek Young was raised in the religious cult The Children of God, also known as The Family, as the daughter of high-ranking members. Her great-grandmother donated land for one of The Family's first communes in Texas. Her mother, at thirteen, was forced to marry the leader and served as his secretary for many years. Beholden to The Family's strict rules, Daniella suffers physical, emotional, and sexual abuseâ??masked as godly discipline and divine loveâ??and is forbidden from getting a traditional education. At fifteen years old, fed up with The Family and determined to build a better and freer life for herself, Daniella escapes to Texas. There, she bravely enrolls herself in high school and excels, later graduating as valedictorian of her college class, then electing to join the military to begin a career as an intelligence officer, where she believes she will finally belong. But she soon learns that her new worldâ??surrounded by men on the sands of Afghanistanâ??looks remarkably similar to the one she desperately tried to leave behind. Told in a beautiful, propulsive voice and with clear-eyed honesty, Uncultured explores the dangers unleashed when harmful group mentality goes unrecognized, and is emblematic of the many ways women have to contort themselves to survive. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's… (plus d'informations)
Emilyt804: Daniella Mestyanek Young’s detailed analysis of cults, bad groups, and extremely bad leadership, and the organizational psychology thereof dovetails nicely with Kuhner’s psychological and theological analyses of Trump voters’ behaviors.
THIS. Is a very GOOD book. In unCULTured, author Daniella Mestyanek Young uncovers the horrors of growing up female in the "religious" cult The Children of God, aka The Family. Unlike Lauren Hough's essay collection, LEAVING ISN'T THE HARDEST THING, about the same experience, Mestyanek Young gives us a more or less chronological record of her life in The Family, telling how she was repeatedly abused, molested and raped by the cult "Uncles" from the time she was only five or six years old until her "escape" at sixteen. Forced to live in a children's dorm, she only saw her parents on weekends. The cult branch she was in moved, often just ahead of the law, from Brazil to California to Mexico and back to the U.S., to Texas, where Mestyanek Young finally managed to break free and attend regular high school, all the while working part-time jobs Aided by a sympathetic counselor, she managed to attend UT Dallas, where she became part of a world-class chess team, enabling her to travel widely. She also married while in college, a union with a controlling charmer, possibly bisexual, which would not last. After graduating college at the top of her class, she joined the army, attending Officer Candidate School after Basic Training and becoming a Military Intelligence officer. She did two tours in Afghanistan, rising to the rank of Captain, gradually realizing what an "old boys' club" the military was, something that nearly cost her her health and sanity. But she did distinguish herself as a champion-class runner and marathoner, and one of the first women to be part of a combat unit. She also met her husband, a chopper pilot, during that second tour.
Throughout her narrative, Mestyanek Young shows how almost any 'culture' - high school, college, military, etc. - has cult-like similarities that are not good, especially for women. After seven years active duty, Mestyanek Young left the Army.
My pat little summary does not begin to show the disrespect, abuse, pain and suffering that Mestyanek Young endured as a girl, a teen, and even as a young woman, despite her myriad accomplishments. Male white supremacists and mysogynists are real and so are cults. And, despite attempts to eliminate sexual trauma from the military, it remains a serious and ingrained problem.
I repeat. This is a VERY GOOD BOOK. Read it! My very highest recommendation.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )
i think this is a very well written story and it's the kind of story that grabs you from the beginning and you want to stay to hear the whole things. this is the third story i've listened to by somebody who was in the children of god cult and it does not get easier to hear what these people went through. and it's important to note that this stuff is still happening even in 2023 Daniella's story is very thorough and i appreciate her sharing how easy it is to fall into a cult even when you just left one. it's really hard to rate someone's personal story.. who am i to judge? but then that's the point of writing reviews and sharing my opinions... there's two parts to this book which i think could've been two separate books because think the author could've written so much more about her two lives if it wasn't all in one book ( )
Listened to the audio book, which was narrated by the author. This memoir is about the author's life being raised in the Children of God cult, escaping that cult, getting an education and then joining the army, which is a cult in its own way. This was a tough story to listen to. It has all the abuse; physical, sexual, emotional, verbal, etc... with some suicidal ideation thrown in. You need to be in the right frame of mind when reading this. ( )
Daniella is raised in the Children of God cult until she escapes at 15. She starts a new life for herself in Texas, enrolls in high school and goes on to excel in college. The ghosts of her past haunt her when she enrolls in the military, even though she becomes an intelligence officer. She has to maneuver her way through male-dominated territory where the first advice from her senior is "Don't get raped" , as if that is an option for her. Daniella sees a clear correlation between groups like the military and the cult she left, as the physical toll of abuse catches up with her. An eye-opening biography to life in a cult as well as an interesting perspective from a rare very resilient woman advanced in the military. ( )
"Although this is Mestyanek Young's first time narrating, listeners will appreciate hearing this deeply personal story told by the author herself. Share with fans of Tara Westover's Educated and Deborah Feldman's Unorthodox. Memoir readers will want to check this one out."- Library Journal "A painful and propulsive memoir delivered in the honest tones of a woman who didn't always think she'd live to tell her story." â??The New York Times This program is read by the author. In the vein of Educated and The Glass Castle, Daniella Mestyanek Young's Uncultured is more than a memoir about an exceptional upbringing, but about a woman who, no matter the lack of tools given to her, is determined to overcome. Behind the tall, foreboding gates of a commune in Brazil, Daniella Mestyanek Young was raised in the religious cult The Children of God, also known as The Family, as the daughter of high-ranking members. Her great-grandmother donated land for one of The Family's first communes in Texas. Her mother, at thirteen, was forced to marry the leader and served as his secretary for many years. Beholden to The Family's strict rules, Daniella suffers physical, emotional, and sexual abuseâ??masked as godly discipline and divine loveâ??and is forbidden from getting a traditional education. At fifteen years old, fed up with The Family and determined to build a better and freer life for herself, Daniella escapes to Texas. There, she bravely enrolls herself in high school and excels, later graduating as valedictorian of her college class, then electing to join the military to begin a career as an intelligence officer, where she believes she will finally belong. But she soon learns that her new worldâ??surrounded by men on the sands of Afghanistanâ??looks remarkably similar to the one she desperately tried to leave behind. Told in a beautiful, propulsive voice and with clear-eyed honesty, Uncultured explores the dangers unleashed when harmful group mentality goes unrecognized, and is emblematic of the many ways women have to contort themselves to survive. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's
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