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Jul 24, 2008

MistyAnne rated it:

Julia Scheeres's memoir is perhaps one of the most haunting, powerful memoirs I've read. She details the heart-wrenching abuse she endured at the hands of her Christian family and the abusive reform school she attended with her adopted African American brother in the Dominican Republic. Her tale of severe sexual, emotional, physical, and religious abuse highlights issues of power and domination that are sometimes present in the American church. However, even as I wept for her and her brother whi More...

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Apr 24, 2008

Rachel rated it:

Many people on this forum say it was hard or impossible to believe that all of these things could have happened to one person. But I have no trouble believing these things could have happened - in my job I hear these kind of stories every day. One person said that the author should have kept these stories to herself or only shared with her mental health counselor. But if she chose to break the silence of her ordeal I see nothing wrong with that. And I liked the fact that her relationship More...

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Nov 23, 2007

Joe rated it:

I cried when I read the last line of Julia Scheeres tragic and touching memoir. Scheeres sucked me into her life and I couldn't put the book down for a second. My blood boiled at several points through out the book. Is it truly possible that people can be so heartless and cruel? Is it truly possible that while I was living a carefree childhood, Scheeres (who is only two years older than me) was living in a private hell? Jesus Land reads like a well paced, well written novel but I had to keep rem More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jul 07, 2007

LARRY rated it:

As posted in [http://www.amazon.com]:

Oh. My. Goodness! Julia writes this honest memoir of her Christian childhood. However, the Christian family is nothing but a facade to impress the members of the local Calvinist church. Julia's mom is obsessed with missionaries and constantly plays Christian music. Her eyes is like those of a hawk, always watching the kids...and spying with the intercom as well.

Julia's surgeon father is worse. He's the one that beats Julia's adopted B More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 05, 2008

Debbie rated it:

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10 comments like (7 people liked it)

Oct 28, 2007

Toni rated it:

The events in this memoir are incredibly tragic, as is the approach to explaining them. Overall, a compelling childhood presented in a childish way. The relationship between David and Julia is heartbreaking. A black adopted brother, the privileged white biological daughter that loves him. It took me a long time to finish this book. It was interesting enough, and well written, but there was something terribly offensive about it. The author tried very hard to be casual about things that were obvio More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 17, 2007

misha rated it:

Such a tragic, heart breaking story that once again, just makes me want to go find some kid and just hug them. The amount of abuse that these kids went through made for a tough read. It's interesting to read this after The Glass Castle and Running with Scissors, other stories about equally difficult childhoods, but each author had different ways to protect themselves. Running with Scissors was about using humor in the face of pure shit. Glass Castle had indeed, a wall around how awful a childhoo More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 31, 2008

Darnell rated it:

This memoir points out a lot of the problems I have with certain religious types. The author's parents adopt two black children in the name of charity but then proceed to neglect all of their children, trying to substitute their own lack of ability to love with God's love.

Things get to a point where the author passively experiences racism, rape and complete subjugation of her free will in a very matter-of-fact and observational way. She's numb to what's happening even as she tells More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 16, 2008

Pamela rated it:

Holy cow, I'm really having a problem rating and reviewing this book. I would have to compare it to a car wreck---something horrible and tragic but often we feel compelled to watch. I took this book on a plane with me wanting a simple, easy read. It wasn't difficult in the ability sense but horribly draining in the emotional sense, I still felt a need to finish it. So many horrible things happen to the two main children in this book, (David's story especially broke my heart)***spoiler alert**: More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 12, 2008

Rachel rated it:

A gift from my dear sister to give me insight into my new home -- Indiana. I haven't met any folk that resemble those depicted in this book yet, but I wonder if I'd recognize them if I did - they seem somewhat caricatured in the book.

This is a memoir of a woman whose family adopted two black children, grudgingly, and proceeded to treat them badly and tolerate their poor treatment by everyone around them in rural Indiana, including the author herself. The author loves her adoptive br More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 01, 2008

Stephen rated it:

Other reviewers have used the word “caricature” in discussing this book, and they may be right. I assume it’s an attempt at an accurate portrayal of the author’s extraordinarily evil family (and other “resources”), but wouldn’t be surprised to learn that she’d embellished things a bit. With the possible exception of Becky, there is not even one responsible/virtuous adult in the entire saga.

That said, it’s a very simple story, probably on the YA level. The author stays in the voice of More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 18, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

Fascinating & shocking look at life in a conservative Christian family in the bible belt. I was horrified by the racism, emotional abuse and physical abuse that these kids suffered at the hands of their parents and the Christian reform school they were sent to. I really didn't know that schools like these existed, I guess I'm naive. I always appreciative my own normal upbringing when I read a book like this one.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Jae Ran rated it:

I thought this was a thoughtful and harrowing memoir. As a transracial adoptee who was adopted into a fundamental Christian home and who also had siblings "homegrown" to my a-parents, I found this memoir quite interesting - especially the first half dealing with their teen years in a small farming community in Indiana.

I would have liked to have read more about Julia's other older siblings and I thought the second half (about Julia and her brother's experiences at a reform More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 07, 2008

Kim rated it:

Only read this book if you want to become depressed. It is very well written and the characters are so memorable but the story is just too hard to take at times. One of the people in my book club expained it best by stating that sometimes you had to walk away from it to be able to finish it. If you ever thought that your life growing up was hard, read this in comparison becuase it will make you thank your parents (thanks Mom!) for giving you a great childhood.

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 13, 2009

Tim added it

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.[return][return]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 More...

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Oct 19, 2011

Wendy rated it:

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Oct 18, 2011

CJ rated it:

I discovered this book because Scheeres has a new book coming out about the Jonestown massacre. While I was reading the reviews for that new book, I found this memoir and devoured it in a day. I am fascinated by people who live completely different lives while living similar lives to mine. I grew up in Michigan, Scheeres grew up in Indiana - how different could our upbringings be? Turns out, VERY different.

Scheeres' parents were strict Christians (sponsoring Missionaries, going to chur More...

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Sep 12, 2011

Naomi rated it:

Reaching the last chapter of this book. This book was just so compelling and enjoyable that I could hardly put it down once I started reading. It's been only 2 days since the start of first chapter.
As a person from very religious family, except in my case, I'm from a catholic household. This book gave me an objective insight on religion, which generally has been only my mother's idea to raise me up to but through this book, I really got to think about what it means to be a person of God. More...

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Aug 15, 2011

Emily rated it:

I'm having a hard time rating this book. Scheeres' story and prose really pulled me in, and her relationship with her brother David, with all of its unlikely turns and challenges, was complex, profound, and well-wrought.

With the multiple abuses and struggles in the memoir, it felt like watching a car wreck at times. Despite the dismal retelling of multiple disasters, I feel that the book ultimately succeeded. I came away encouraged by the siblings' persevering friendship and the str More...

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Nov 01, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 01, 2010

Mckinley rated it:

I'm not sure what attracted me to this book. The comments on the back where impelling. (Maybe I was trying to balance out my reading of Under the Banner of Heaven?) What a story. Scheeres writes to a fine balance between love and cruelty in a way that is never overdone, but still, creeps insidiously into your head and heart. Her home life is "difficult" to put it mildly and the reform school she "chooses" over it worse. Yet she has the courage and heart to face it then and ag More...

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Sep 03, 2010

Laura rated it:

Jesus Land is the heartbreaking story of a girl and her adopted brother. David, a black boy, becomes the brother of Julia, a white girl, after her family adopts him from foster care. Julia tells about their early life together and describes a sibling bond that involves love, fighting, jokes, and acceptance. Once David and Julia start school and move to white, rural Indiana, they realize that the world is a lot less of accepting of their relationship. Julia and David's family are devout Chris More...

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Jun 14, 2010

Kelly rated it:

Some people have really crappy childhoods. But that doesn't mean that the memoir will be uninteresting. I enjoyed reading it, though it was disturbing on so many levels. The [white:] author's very close relationship with her adopted [black:] brother was very sweet, even if she did selfishly turn on him for a bit when they were teenagers. The most interesting stuff was all the religious crap. The Christian reform school was insane. It's clear that the long-held Christian tradition of hurting peop More...

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Jun 01, 2010

AdultNonFiction rated it:

Teton County Library Call No: BIO SCHEERES
Wendi's rating: 4 stars

Remember in the 80’s when you were a teenager? And remember how much you loathed your family? Well take that, add in your religious zealot parents, and don’t forget the fact that your two adopted brothers (who are African-American and you are white) suffer daily from racism both at home and in public. Now you really have a recipe for a shocking yet believable memoir. Told from her view as a teenager, Scheeres chro More...

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Jan 11, 2010

Annie rated it:

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Jun 11, 2009

Chris rated it:

Just finishing this one up. I was drawn in because the main characters (do you call them characters when it's a memoir?) are a white girl and her black brother, who was adopted. Being the mom of an adopted daughter who is of a different race than my husband and I, I thought it might offer some interesting insight. It did, but in a horrible way. The family who adopted the boy, besides the author/ sister, does not seem to see him as a family member or their child at all, but rather as some sort of More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 04, 2009

Emily rated it:

(Alex Awards, non-fiction)

What an interesting book! This story focuses on Julia, a white girl, and her adopted brother, David, who is black. Her parents are “Jesus freaks” and frequently beat their adopted black children. Julia loves David, but has difficultly showing it. Her brothers are the only black people in their small, rural Indiana town and are the subject of racial slurs and attacks. David is a good kid, but he acts out once and is sent to “Escuela Caribe” in the Dominica More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 11, 2011

Patty64465 rated it:

"If God is in control, why does He allow so many bad things to happen? ... If God is all we need, why does it so often seem that He is not enough? God may be enough for Mother, but I need other things, too. Immediate, solid things. I need Dad to stop beating the boys and Jerome to leave me alone and Mother to be kind."

This was a very hard book for me to rate. First, don't let the title confuse you, this is NOT a Christian book. In fact, this book mocks believers -- leav More...

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Oct 26, 2009

Khaya rated it:

Julia Scheeres's train wreck of a memoir is divided into two parts. The first focuses on her upbringing in a strict, abusive Calvinist family. In an apparently self-deluded display of Christian charity her parents have adopted two black boys, whom they not only abuse but fail to protect from the inevitable racism of 1980s middle America. The older boy, Jerome, rebels; the younger boy, David, whom Julia is memorializing in this book, dreams of a happy, functional family but only Julia is recept More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 04, 2011

Melki rated it:

Schadenfruede or just curiosity? I do seem to have a fascination for reading about those who've had unpleasant childhoods - "The Glass Castle," "Running with Scissors" and now "Jesus Land." What a sad, sad memoir, yet the author tells her tale matter-of-factly - no self-pity here. Scheeres spends her teenage years in rural Indiana with a violent father, an unbalanced mother and her two adopted African American brothers. Her close, almost twin-like relationship More...

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