Daughter of Gloriavale

My Life in a Religious Cult

By: Lilia Tarawa

Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen

In this personal account, Lilia Tarawa exposes the shocking secrets of the cult, with its rigid rules and oppressive control of women. She describes her fear when her family questioned Gloriavale's beliefs and practices.

When her parents fled with their children, Lilia was forced to make a desperate choice: to stay or to leave. No matter what she chose, she would lose people she loved.

In the outside world, Lilia struggled. Would she be damned to hell for leaving? How would she learn to navigate this strange place called "the world"? And would she ever find out the truth about the criminal convictions against her grandfather?

©2017 Lilia Tarawa (P)2021 Tantor

Hard to turn off!

I watch the TV docuseries first and this was the other side of the coin I was looking for. The narrator’s voice is so soothing yet engaging.

Eye opening

I am in awe of the strength of this entire family as they collectively endured and triumphed over so many impossible obstacles BRAVO HIGHLY RECOMMEND GREAT LISTEN

Horrible narrator

The story is interesting, and informative.
But, I found the audible recording of this story hard to listen to. I’m not sure if the narrator was trying to put of a New Zealand accent but whatever they were doing, I wish they weren’t. So many words were mispronounced and I had to do a double take to figure out what they were trying to say.

Good overall

When I chose this book, I didn't realize it was set in New Zealand, so that "flight" across the world was fun and interesting. I had never heard of this cult, either; I just picked the book because it was part of my subscription and because I was interested in cult memoirs. It is mostly well-paced, engrossing, and compelling. I did get bogged down in the last few chapters, when Tarawa details her emergence from the cult and into her new life in the world. I liked hearing about her soul-searching and the examination she made of her experiences and her beliefs, but many of her "worldly" choices--clothes, hair, sexuality, etc.-- and her evolving moral/theological conclusions deeply troubled me. For example, it seemed like she consciously, even proudly, replaced God with her Self as her ultimate authority and then proclaimed it as freedom and something to be proud of. Perhaps I misunderstood this and other concerns that I had, though.

The final chapters also raised a lot questions that were never addressed, questions about her parents and their choice to leave the cult, as well as how they ran their household after that. Overall, though, I enjoyed the book! I especially love that she turned her experiences into a career that allows her to help to other people. As for the performance, the narrator did well for the most part, but she had a voice quality that often sounded like a TV announcer proclaiming something, rather than a natural storytelling tone.

incredible.

loved listening to this. an inspiring story of an amazing young lady and family. so much strength and gives so much hope

Incredibly disturbing.

I have friends who are in cults in the US. I understand being born into it because it is all you know. I also understand people’s longing to believe in and belong to something greater than themselves. But to willingly give up control over your mind and body, I’ll never understand. It seems to me that it is all fear-driven. I watched the puff piece TV series about Gloriavale and I was truly rattled by the naïveté, the vulnerability of the members of the cult. The whole thing is disturbing.

Interesting story but drawn out at the end

I really enjoyed listening to her life story at Gloriavale. I would have given it a 5 star but once she left Gloriavale the rest of the story was very boring. She should have abridged this section to keep listeners’ interest. By the end I was just waiting for it to end. The rest of the book was amazing!

Great story and narrator

Lilia did an amazing job telling her story and drawing the reader in. What she and her family went through for years is nothing less than astonishing.

I found the documentaries, etc. more interesting

...than this book, though it was ok. I did like that she covered (maybe too much) what was good about living in Gloriavale because it wasn't JUST a horror show.

The Fruits of Protestantism

This book was a sad example of what protestantism is at its core and its ultimate fruits for many. It has the replacement of the Triune God with the subjective self, the worship of one’s self and dogmatic adoption of one or another set of warmed over and mutually contradictory tautological cliches.

I pray for this woman, as her hyper-post-modernist nihilism (tempered by a fanatical worship of her emotions and the bromides of the self-help industry) will, if not abandoned and repudiated, leave her as broken and empty as this book reveals her to be. She seems to have a good heart, but she suffers from being subjected to someone arbitrarily “deciding” her reality. She now believes she can decide reality. Only the God Whose Essence is Existence and Who died and rose can do that. He has a Bride on earth, and the Roman Pontiff stewards her. One can, like this author, claim without argument or evidence that there no such thing as absolute truth, but to do so they must also acknowledge that this rule applies to and thereby defeats itself.

Also - this book is 60-75% too long and many paragraphs, colorless anecdotal recollections and chapters aim with similar, meaningless and cumulative banalities of the most platitudinous and transparently empty sort. The author also has (and despite juvenile “silly me” “aw shucks” protests to the contrary) a pervasive obsession with her appearance. She also appears to have a completely shattered understanding of the sexes.

I would encourage the offer to ponder whether God might be bigger than her grandfather. Jesus remains the only Way, Truth and Life. Mary Queen of Peace and Victory, PRAY FOR US!