“The house of my mother- a daughter’s quest for freedom” by Shari Franke is an extremely raw and unique experience. Franke was forced to become part of her narcissistic mother’s YouTube channel (8 Passengers) with all of her other siblings. In the book, she describes her perspective from starting the channel to the arrest of her mother. Every single moment of her life, every achievement, every tear was captured by a camera and posted to millions of viewers. With “mommy blogging” there is a conversation that needs to be held. Should a mother be able to exploit her child for money and fame ? Should she be able to post her underage child? Who is allowed to receive the earnings of said channel? Overall there should be regulations to this topic. The book overall is well written and depicts the harm social media and religious psychosis has on a child that simply had no choice. That might be harsh to say but I do wish she wrote the book a bit later. This case is still “fresh” and while reading I can’t help but notice a pattern. The pattern is: the victim isn’t free yet.
The inflicts of religious psychosis of her mother seems to still play a part (obviously). The author is still religious and does explain a lot of things that happened through God. My heart goes out to her and I do hope she gets better and finds space to heal and be at peace. The book does not feel “resolved” or finished for that matter. I do see the complete detachment from her mother. Kind of excusing the dad being an enabler also shows the wounds are still fresh. So if you are interested in seeing how mommy blogging can impact a young child, it is worth a read. I simply couldn’t say the end is satisfying. I was hoping for her to reflect on the situation and see how there are many people to blame in this situation. I do understand though, her trauma is extremely complex. So it is very difficult to “review”.
There should be tighter regulations on posting an entire life of someone who legally can’t consent though…
by ilovepiglets
3 Comments
I also found the book very interesting but frustrating. Shari was *this* close to realizing/acknowledging the cult like behavior of the LDS church that allowed her abuse and neglect to be glorified.
yeah im ex mormon and reading this book was very frustrating because she bent over backwards to not see the role her church had in everything that has been done to her and her loved ones, i really wish she had waited a while longer to mature a bit more before writing it, there’s a chance nothing would be different but theres also a chance she would have come out of it all and been able to truly explore all of it more
i just wish her well and hope she can truly heal, i could tell from reading the book that she seems to think she is already healed/healing but shes definitely not going to heal fully until she confronts her faith and church and the role they played
Yeah, it was interesting and horrifying. I feel like she did more to try and help her family than her own father. Like Ruby is just evil.