". . . The Truth Book soars in its nightmarish truths--an unforgettable tale of hypocrisy and cruelty."

"Though Castro's prose is heartbreakingly well written, the greatest strength of her book is its glimpses of her beautiful spirit--she is the kind of woman who years later worries that she did not allow her brother to pick up the plant he dropped as they escaped to their father's home."

"While she is forthright about abuses which she experienced, Castro also introduces us to kind individuals and caring families, relating her own particular experience in spare and lyrical prose.

"This book is a horrifying tale of abuse justified by fundamentalist religion. Joy Castro tells the heart-wrenching tale beautifully."

"Joy Castro has written an utterly truthful and harrowing book about the human capacity for hypocrisy and cruelty and also the human capacity for bravery and love. The Truth Book is a compelling memoir written in an achingly beautiful voice."

"Jehovah's Witnesses have something they call 'the truth book,' Castro says, which lays the groundwork proving theirs is the one, true religion. As a precocious preteen, and though wholly indoctrinated by her fundamentalist family, Castro began asking simple questions regarding the book's claims. Her mother's response, her father's ambivalence, the unapproachable church elders, and ultimately her stepfather's vicious enforcement of the book's truth constitute the framework for her startling memoir of not just an abhorrently dysfunctional family but also a misfiring religious organization. Castro portrays Jehovah's Witnesses as a religion that recognizes all people as equals yet disenfranchises a member for smoking, and as a passionately proselytizing organization that can turn a blind eye to grossly abusive parenting. Her story is, more than merely engaging, downright embracing. The unfolding fates of Castro and her brother as they endure abuse at the hands of those entrusted with their care, even though we know they emerged whole and sane, prove utterly gripping."

"A joy. The story is exciting, even harrowing, and the people are exceptionally well drawn and complicated. More important than having been a Jehovah's Witness is the witness Joy Castro is to her own life. Very sad, but ultimately triumphant."

"A brave and lyrical work about all that the human spirit can survive—and what it cannot. Before I picked up this book, I knew nothing about Jehovah's Witnesses beyond what they told me at the door, knew little about what it might feel like to be adopted, but I identified so deeply with this memoir because of the sheer humanity of these individuals and my total trust in the narrator. I'm savoring the inexplicable sense of hope it leaves on my tongue."

"When Joy Castro was a girl, her zealously brutal stepfather, in the name of his Jehovah's Witness faith, took away her books. Now, by writing her own book—one so insistently, exquisitely honest that a reader, despite the pain, feels cleansed—Castro gives witness to a higher truth: that of storytelling."

"In her graceful and powerful memoir, Joy Castro explores her family in an honest attempt to forgive the brutal religiosity inflicted on her and her brother Tony. Throughout this story we discover, like Castro, that culture doesn't always shape you wisely, and God is often absent in religion. A heart-aching read both redemptive and hopeful, Castro's voice is a candle flickering bright in the darkness of the most painful hours of growing up."

"Out of a life wounded by brutality and hypocrisy Joy Castro has made something straight and true—a victory for the writer and the reader."

"A fundamentalist fairytale that is all the more harrowing because it is true. Joy Castro's story—about an ultra-religious mother, an adored but self-indulgent father, a malevolent stepfather, and a resilient daughter who not only endures the unspeakable but prevails over it to tell her truth—is unflinching and unforgettable."

"I cannot find enough superlative adjectives to describe Dr. Castro's book. After finishing it—a relatively quick, easy, and engrossing read—I sat stunned. I've read many accounts