A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy

I just finished A Well-Trained Wife by Tia Levings - My escape from christian patriarchy a memoir and here are my thoughts.


Women, “keepers of the home” were to be silent.... That is incredibly powerful. It pretty much tells you everything you know to know about what you will find in this book.

This book is loaded with triggers...

Child abuse and death
Domestic Violence including rape and some pretty horrific animal abuse.

I don't know how someone should rate a book like this. This is something very personal to the author and her story is quite horrifying. As a survivor of abuse myself, I can't imagine how one would even go about documenting and compiling a story intriguing enough to get people to read and know that critics can be brutal and not take it personally.

I found it was well written and heartbreaking. I rarely read books like this because reading someone else's pain for entertainment seems a little tasteless to me but I can see how a book like this could help someone else heal from trauma or give them the courage to make changes in their own abuses.


My biggest takeaway is that we make assumptions about religion and the people who define themselves within and in this instance, it was used as a control tool to abuse someone. Extreme zealots have used religion to hide their nefarious ways for centuries. I am glad Tia made her way out safely and I hope she continues to heal.

4 stars

Thank you @stmartinspress for my gifted copy

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