Jesus Land

A Memoir

By: Julia Scheeres

Narrated by: Elizabeth Evans

Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Julia and her adopted brother, David, are 16 years old. Julia is White. David is Black. It is the mid-1980s and their family has just moved to rural Indiana, a landscape of cottonwood trees, trailer parks, and an all-encompassing racism. At home are a distant mother more involved with her church’s missionaries than her own children and a violent father.

In this riveting and heartrending memoir Julia Scheeres takes us from the Midwest to a place beyond imagining: surrounded by natural beauty, the Escuela Caribea religious reform school in the Dominican Republic is characterized by a disciplinary regime that extracts repentance from its students by any means necessary. Julia and David strive to make it through these ordeals and their tale is relayed here with startling immediacy, extreme candor, and wry humor.

©2006 Julia Scheeres (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Like the best writers, Scheeres offers her characters in the fullness of the contradictions they hold in tension, and with great and clear-sighted empathy, and at the end of the audiobook, the listener might say: They’re so much like me.” (Salon.com)

loved it. so insightful. i laughed, i cried.

so insightful and beautifully read. thank you for sharing this story. i will absolutely reccomend.

Jesus Land - how NOT to be a Christian

What made the experience of listening to Jesus Land the most enjoyable?

This book was not enjoyable in the sense that it was happy, hopeful, or even primarily redemptive. In fact, many passages of this book made me angry - not at the author, but at her parents (her father's abuse and her mother's cold indifference and hypocrisy)... and then to add reform "school" on top? This is not the Jesus I know... any of it!

I have to include the black v. white race issue here, as it was prominently displayed in the book. I honestly challenge anyone to find where in the Bible it says that black people are inferior, as for some reason that seemed to be the prevailing belief in conservative America...

What other book might you compare Jesus Land to and why?

I read this book on the heels of reading Lauren Drain's "Banished - surviving my years in the Westboro Baptist Church". There are many parallels, and yet these two women have come out completely different - one a secular humanist with no need for religion; the other still seeking answers and believing that there is a God of love out there..

Which character – as performed by Elizabeth Evans – was your favorite?

Elizabeth Evans was incredible as a narrator for this book. She infused so much of the teen angst, pain and frustration that Julia must have felt... I felt like a young Julia Scheeres was telling me her story.

Any additional comments?

As stated above, many parts of this book made me angry. It is a cautionary expression of the Biblical words for parents not to grieve their children. It causes me to reflect on how I plan to raise my own children as a Christian. They will need so much more than just food and shelter - they will need love and affection, something notably absent from Julia's parents.

This book is not representative of all Christians, or Christ Himself. I personally believe that one can be a strong believer in Christ and neither hold so many convictions as to stomp out compassion and grace nor so few as to be ineffective. Christ - as portrayed in the Bible - is not a brutal task master nor a spineless sissy.

I applaud Julia Scheeres for writing this brutally honest book and Elizabeth Evans for perfectly narrating it.

The best book ever

I could be a publicist for this book I love it so much I’ve read it multiple times and I always push it on my friends family strangers even foes lol.

Hell of a story about growing up in hell

I don’t usually read memoirs but Jesus Land was very, very good. How she managed to grow up with such repressive, fanatical and violent parents, and then survive a concentration camp masquerading as a Christian reform school – and emerge as a functioning human being - is hard to understand. The only thing that got her through was the support and love she shared with her brother, who had it worse because he was adopted and black.

amazing story and narrator's voice perfect for it

such a great book recomended for all book lovers and people who don't read much

A story of survival

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I originally chose this book because I am a native to Indiana--little did I know that when I started listening to it, they were residents in Lafayette, IN which is a town only 20 minutes from where I grew up.
It's a true story of survival in a family that uses religion as an excuse to be abusive to their children, both emotionally and physically.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Jesus Land?

David's continued desire to have a "family" despite the physical and emotional abuse he endured.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

One of the last moments that Julia and David got to spend together on the beach

Incrediable Memoir of How Our Familes Shape Us

What did you love best about Jesus Land?

I grew up in rural Illinois the same time as Julia Scheeres grew up in rural Indiana. Her memories reflect so many of my own in regards to racism, religion and the constant peer pressure. I felt as though I was on her journey with her as she traversed heartbreak at the hands of her own family and prejudice at every turn.

What other book might you compare Jesus Land to and why?

I don't think there is any book that compares to this one - this is such a personal story.

Which scene was your favorite?

My favorite scene is when Julia Scheers returns to Escuela Caribe and offers the advice "trust no one."

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I wanted to desperately finish this book in one sitting because it was so good. I wanted to know that Julia Scheers somehow found happiness and that David found the true meaning of family.

Any additional comments?

This memoir is truly moving. It is so heartbreaking and honest, I want to thank Julia Scheers for finding the strength to write it.

The effects of a dysfunctional family

A compelling autobiography with a number of threads running through it. Another side to the stories that Glass & Hayden tell.

Thought I was the only one

I grew up in a similar household, this book nailed it from the "far away place" numbing out of reacurring sexual trauma. To the ridiculous baby boomers, that then try to run every aspect of your life.

A Story of the Most Un-Christ-like Christians

Sheeres shares jaw-dropping stories from her childhood in the mid-1980s when her Bible-obsessed parents moved their family to Indiana. Her two adopted brothers, both African-American, faced cruelty and racism in and outside the home, a 15-acre farm where the children were little more than slaves.

Christian radio served as an alarm clock at six o'clock in the morning. Spy speakers were installed around the house so that all their conversations could be heard by the mother. The violent father, whose favorite biblical injunction was "spare the rod, spoil the child" beat the sons countless times and left permanent scars.

Eventually, Sheeres and her younger brother were sent away to an over-the-top Christian boot camp in Latin America that takes a "by-any-means-necessary" approach to getting repentance from the students. You can't help but wonder if the kids are going to be killed.