Not sure if you remember me from the TLC days. I am [name withheld just in case]’s younger brother. I was 10 in 1992 and spent my adolescence in the TLC before we left in early 2001 at age 19. I just finished your book and am thrilled. It was funny, cathartic, and inspiring. And Dr. Stephen Novella is one of my favorite people in the world. Thank you for sharing.

George Carlin, Mark Twain, and Julia Sweeney would be delighted
This is a fun read and an interesting perspective on everything from magic underwear to cults to Carlin to occult baptisms. It is a must-read before viewing the motion picture "The Master."
—W. L. Rubink

Derek Colanduno interviewed Joanne Hanks, author of “It’s Not About the Sex” My Ass on Skepticality, the official podcast of Skeptic magazine and the Skeptics Society. Listen to Joanne’s interview with Derek Colanduno by clicking here. Joanne’s interview begins 46 minutes into the podcast.

4.0 out of 5 stars
Window into a secret world October 1, 2012
By Dee
Format:Kindle Edition

“The book is well paced and doesn't drag, which makes it an easy read. It's also told with a lot of humor. The author doesn't demonize the people she describes, so they stay real and don't become caricatures. It's a good portrait of group-think, and illustrates just how easy it is to go off the rails with a charismatic leader and some isolation. I do wish she had spent a bit more time talking about how she got out, at least in terms of what was going on in her head. It was easier to see how she got into her situation, bit by bit, but harder to see the internal process for getting out. Overall the book is an interesting insight into the dynamics of a small polygamist group.”

“This woman's experiences will shock you, but she and her co-author manage to show how intelligent people can come to believe what is least believable. The topic is serious, but the story is told in a light-hearted, witty fashion and without ridicule. I HIGHLY recommend it.”

—Clinical psychologist Barbara Drescher on GoodReads.com

Not terribly politically correct for today ... but, we hope you agree, funny nonetheless.

On fidelity:

“By temperament, which is the real law of God, many men are goats and can't help committing adultery when they get a chance; whereas there are numbers of men who, by temperament, can keep their purity and let an opportunity go by if the woman lacks in attractiveness.”

On Mormon polgyamy:

“Our stay in Salt Lake City amounted to only two days, and therefore we had no time to make the customary inquisition into the workings of polygamy and get up the usual statistics and deductions preparatory to calling the attention of the nation at large once more to the matter.
 
“I had the will to do it. With the gushing self-sufficiency of youth I was feverish to plunge in headlong and achieve a great reform here—until I saw the Mormon women. Then I was touched. My heart was wiser than my head. It warmed toward these poor, ungainly and pathetically “homely” creatures, and as I turned to hide the generous moisture in my eyes, I said, ‘No—the man that marries one of them has done an act of Christian charity which entitles him to the kindly applause of mankind, not their harsh censure—and the man that marries sixty of them has done a deed of open-handed generosity so sublime that the nations should stand uncovered in his presence and worship in silence.’”