Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife

Very good listen. I have become very involved in listening to several books about the FLDS & the polygamous life. This is a terrific read coming from one of the wives directly. I learn with every book I have listened to. This one was eye-opening from the view of a wife & her doubts about herself & her love for God made me understand better how these woman believe they "belong" in this lifestyle for their salvation.

Irene - loved her feistiness & was surprised by the defiance she showed to her husband. I understood them to be so much more obedient all the time. I was glad to see that she was "normal" and voiced her opinions and disagreements from time to time.

Never have - first one. Very easy to listen to.

Nothing extreme. Just satisfying to learn more from the wife's point of view.

I have been on a kick of reading books about polygamous wives and their trials and tribulations for their faith and as soon as I started listening to Shattered Dreams I couldn't stop. Irene's story is amazing and inspiring and I am looking forward to reading Cult Insanity!

Im always so facinated and appalled by Polygamy. I couldn't stop listening!! Way to go Irene!!

Thank you, Irene, for sharing your story. Absolutely fascinating what one will do for blind faith. Really well written - especially for someone for whom education was not a priority until later in life. Irene Spencer is obviously a gifted and very intelligent woman.

To hear this story was remarkable of the hardships we often put ourselves through with our choices. How she has kept any sanity at all means that she has the ability to love, endure, change, and accept.

For anyone interested in a polygamist's perspective, this is the go-to-book. It was interesting to hear the experiences, feelings, and emotions of Irene Spencer. For goodness sake, she eventually ended up having over 7 sister wives! To hear her describe her jealousy about sharing her husband was expected. I'm not sure what woman would genuinely not hold jealous feelings when being in a plural marriage. However, as she explained her first relationship - which was monogamous and how some in the Mormon community (not inluding her mother) manipulated her several times into absolving that relationship was terribly unfortunate. I could not imagine being in her shoes - however, she does a good job at explaining what it was like if I were. It is best to listen to this with an open mind - very open.

Once again, I'm fascinated by the whole polygamy world. I can't imagine living through this. Irene Spencer gives a great account of what her childhood was like, why she believed in polygamy and how she ended up giving up true love to live a life as a polygamist wife. Her story is like many others I've listened to, one of having to deal with a husband that didn't love or respect her, sister wives whom she didn't get along with and having one child after another, while living in poverty and having no rights to speak of. The narrated, Laural Merlington, did a great job. Although my stomach turned and I felt anger at what she endured, I'm glad I listened to her story.. For those who think a woman would only put up with this kind of abuse because they're drama queens or because they "deserve it", after listening to her story, you will hopefully have a better understanding of how some religious communities can brainwash people into believing they must put up with these situations in order to be accepted in heaven.. sad, and amazing, all at the same time.

I cannot begin to tell you how fascinating and puzzling polygamy is. I was wrought with curiousity throughout the whole book and was of course in awe of the lifestyle as many others are when learning about their culture. It is a side of society that people still know very little about.

I can't imagine even with all the details of this woman's life how difficult it must have been to be born into this culture. Unfortunately, her focus on the undying sacrifices and un-ending pain and suffering associated with her lifestyle quickly became redundant. The entire book felt like a poor me memoir and although it sounds impossible, she had many many opportunities to leave that life, which she eventually did towards middle age. It should have been sooner rather than later; but it felt as though she enjoyed the misery, pain and suffering. There comes a point where the details of her unfortunate circumstances go from evoking sympathy from the reader to frustration towards the 12th chapter. If I had a search feature, I could quite honestly count the many times where she starts crying uncontrollably while throwing herself on the bed to about 25-30 times. So much so that she admits into the story how sick her husband was with her constant crying. By the end, you will be sick of her crying too.

Decent story, difficult character to like.

I've always been fascinated with the understanding of the bully/victim relationship and how it spins not from one but from both parties. It's cautionary for me.

This book is frustrating to me, because of how deeply this woman buys into a world that is clearly not working for her. She's tragic but she clings rather thoroughly to her tragedy and never catches that she has a part in it. You don't see her growing so much as complying. She keeps feeling used and abused, but she clings to the problem so hard there are really are no answers for her. I found that tiring.

Oh My Goodness

This book was amazing, and I don't use that word loosely...I was with her the entire book. I recommended this book to anyone and plan on reading it several more times.