Secret Ceremonies - A Mormon Woman's Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond Books

Pros: Laake's interesting writing style and brutal candor.
Cons: A whole lot about sex... maybe a bit too much information.

Ten years ago, I picked up the late Deborah Laake's 1993 book Secret Ceremonies, probably because I had encountered a couple of Mormons when I was a college student and was curious about the religion. I don't remember much about that first ...

Pros: Laake has a concise style, and her story is interesting and excruciatingly honest.
Cons: It's more about an unstable individual than it is about Mormonism's alleged secrets.

After finding a paperback copy of Secret Ceremonies in a used bookstore, I couldn't wait to delve into it. Ceremonies is Deborah Laake's bizarre memoir of her evolution from a devout Mormon to a disenfranchised divorcee verging on a mental...

Pros: Interesting information about church rituals
Cons: Shallow revelations she had no business revealing

I bought this book in the hope of learning something about the beliefs of the Mormon church, which seem unusual and interesting to me. I read it in one day, which tells you something about how thought-provoking it is.

What I got was an...

Pros: Unveils secrets that are long hidden from new converts.
Cons: It crosses secret lines that leave some readers uncomfortable.

Finally, a brave accounting of what the Mormon Church is really about. This book should be a mandatory must-read for anybody that is curious about joining the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Although there are many positive things associated with the LDS Church, the hidden components of this "religion" are what makes it so damaging. Members are never forthcoming regarding the practices within their temples, and this leaves the convert with quite a shock, and nobody to express this shock to due to its mandatory hush-hush rule. Non-member single females being courted by a Mormon male are especially vulnerable. The severe restrictions within the Church make it almost impossible for a normal human being to abide by, and the occurrences of adultry and other criminal behavior among the "heirarchy" is too numerous to count. I was also a long-standing member in the Church, and it took years to reverse all the brain washing. Those that bash this book do it more out of fear of all the "secrets" that are being revealed, as opposed to any true literary obligation.