What do you think?
Rate this book
The Community
An arresting and emotional memoir about a family’s indoctrination into a religious cult, a daughter coming to terms with a parent’s devastating choices, and the trials ahead in post-9/11 New York.
In 1978, when Jamiyla was two years old, her mother, Ummi, quit her job, converted to Islam with her husband, and moved into an exclusive Muslim society in Brooklyn. Once inside the Community, the family was separated by its powerful and charismatic leader, Dwight York, who was hiding behind the name Imam Isa. Instead of the devotional refuge they’d imagined, the Community was a nightmare of controlled abuse and unspeakable secrets.
Forty years later, Jamiyla was ready to excavate and understand a past buried in bad dreams, disturbing memories, and inexplicable rage. It was a place Ummi never wanted to return to. Jamiyla had to.
Jamiyla’s emotional memoir tells her family’s story of life inside and outside the cult, and of escaping into new challenges as conservative Muslims in the secular Brooklyn they left behind. A harrowing and deeply personal history fraught with racial tension and devastating personal betrayals, The Community is also a hopeful story brimming with Black pride, justice, and the long-overdue healing between a daughter and mother.
In 1978, when Jamiyla was two years old, her mother, Ummi, quit her job, converted to Islam with her husband, and moved into an exclusive Muslim society in Brooklyn. Once inside the Community, the family was separated by its powerful and charismatic leader, Dwight York, who was hiding behind the name Imam Isa. Instead of the devotional refuge they’d imagined, the Community was a nightmare of controlled abuse and unspeakable secrets.
Forty years later, Jamiyla was ready to excavate and understand a past buried in bad dreams, disturbing memories, and inexplicable rage. It was a place Ummi never wanted to return to. Jamiyla had to.
Jamiyla’s emotional memoir tells her family’s story of life inside and outside the cult, and of escaping into new challenges as conservative Muslims in the secular Brooklyn they left behind. A harrowing and deeply personal history fraught with racial tension and devastating personal betrayals, The Community is also a hopeful story brimming with Black pride, justice, and the long-overdue healing between a daughter and mother.
183 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2022
1643 people are currently reading
6263 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 267 reviews
May 6, 2022
From the title and introduction, one would think that “The Community” is about the Black Muslim cult, Nuwaubian Nation, and its founder, Dwight York or Imam Isa. But the book is more of an autobiography of a Black woman, brought by her parents to the Community at the age of two, physical and mental abuse, and the anger and psychosis it produced. It is also the story of an extended Black family coming of age in the second half of the 20th Century. And finally, it is the insider’s view of how it feels to wear Islamic garb (e.g. hijab) in a secular and often anti-Muslim society.
I read the book to learn more about religious cults. Yet the author and her mother are full of anger and paranoia. When the author’s father is sent to prison for the murder of the husband of his adulterous lover, his wife at first believes it must be due to a White conspiracy. When an Egyptian restaurant is attacked on 9-11 and no police are present, the author believes it must be anti-Muslim sentiment rather than dealing with the tragedy. The end of the book turns very preachy. I find the last sentence in the book to be disingenuous, where she stated that her parents taught her love. Most of the book shows that her parents were anything but loving.
I read the book to learn more about religious cults. Yet the author and her mother are full of anger and paranoia. When the author’s father is sent to prison for the murder of the husband of his adulterous lover, his wife at first believes it must be due to a White conspiracy. When an Egyptian restaurant is attacked on 9-11 and no police are present, the author believes it must be anti-Muslim sentiment rather than dealing with the tragedy. The end of the book turns very preachy. I find the last sentence in the book to be disingenuous, where she stated that her parents taught her love. Most of the book shows that her parents were anything but loving.
May 19, 2022
Disappointing and poorly written. There’s very little about the Community or its infamous leader, and no actual discussion about how he eventually comes to be charged with crimes and convicted. Instead there’s a long section about 911, Ground Zero and the anti-Muslim sentiment of the time, leading into a digression about racism in the US.
As far as the writing itself, I struggled to make sense of some of the sentences. I received this book from Amazon First Reads. I am disappointed they couldn’t come up with anything better to offer.
As far as the writing itself, I struggled to make sense of some of the sentences. I received this book from Amazon First Reads. I am disappointed they couldn’t come up with anything better to offer.
June 8, 2022
Sooooooo this wasn't at all what I was expecting from the book description.
I had never heard of The Community, or Dwight York before, but was interested to find out more. While we get some brief insight into why he was arrested, that's where it ends. We learn no more about how he started out. How he gained a following. How the community came to be. Who these victims were.
The main focus is instead on the author, her parents and their poor decisions, ending with her experience during 9-11.
The story is a sad one. Selfish parents, sucked into a cult driven by fear and what feels like a lack of understanding. A little girl abandoned and abused at the hands of the other adults in the cult. And her life afterwards, in a city with a poor perception and tolerance for Muslims.
While the book was not what I thought it would be, it was still an educating and interesting read.
I want to say thank you for a free copy of this book, I won through the Goodreads Give-Away.
I had never heard of The Community, or Dwight York before, but was interested to find out more. While we get some brief insight into why he was arrested, that's where it ends. We learn no more about how he started out. How he gained a following. How the community came to be. Who these victims were.
The main focus is instead on the author, her parents and their poor decisions, ending with her experience during 9-11.
The story is a sad one. Selfish parents, sucked into a cult driven by fear and what feels like a lack of understanding. A little girl abandoned and abused at the hands of the other adults in the cult. And her life afterwards, in a city with a poor perception and tolerance for Muslims.
While the book was not what I thought it would be, it was still an educating and interesting read.
I want to say thank you for a free copy of this book, I won through the Goodreads Give-Away.
October 28, 2022
People were bitching about this being a memoir and not a history lesson on The Community, but I am not one of them. I knew this was a memoir when I picked it up and found the story both interesting and poignant. This is just one woman's story about how her time living in a cult with her parents profoundly shaped her during some of her most formative years. It's also a story about race, family, and personal identity, as much as it's a story about healing from trauma and abuse. If you want to learn more about cults, pick up a book about cults - not a memoir.
December 30, 2022
DNF'ed at page 90, halfway into the book. I was done reading about stupid people and their lame-ass excuses for being morons to their kid.
May 14, 2022
A few contemporary threads weave this memoir together: an Islamic Community in New York City whose leader ended up going to prison for child abuse, the never ending stresses of a de-centered family, and being a Muslim in New York City during 9/11. Chisholm begins her narrative explaining youthful dreams of a roomful of people speaking in Arabic. The thing was that she never experienced anything like this and she didn’t know Arabic. Her mom soon explained the experiential basis of these dreams – an experience as a toddler as a member of “the Community.”
Chisholm’s mother joined the Community as a newly married young adult, only to leave a couple of years later in deep frustration. The Community separated children from their parents, and wives, from their husbands. It formed a small patriarchal society where people slept together on the floor in small rooms, with money ultimately flowing to the leader. Years later, the leader was sentenced to decades of jail for child abuse. Racial empowerment lay behind the Community’s wider appeal, but inconsistencies seemed to haunt its reality.
Aside from these religious and cultural dynamics, the story also explores Chisholm’s own family structure. Despite claiming positional leadership of her family, her father did not play a tremendous role in her upbringing. Her mother struggled to forge an identity independent of him and Islam. Like many families, theirs consisted of more than just its immediate members.
In concluding chapters, Chisholm considers how her Islamic identity faced adversity while in New York City during 9/11. Honestly, these type of thoughts deserve a book of their own. Sure, including these chapters allows marketers to advertise this book as a memoir including 9/11, but these thoughts really deserve their own piece, spanning many more pages. Chisholm’s observations during this time deserve to be explored and heard, but this book abbreviates them too much.
Overall, this is an interesting autobiography describing what it means to be a black, Muslim girl growing up in New York City. It also describes the cultic Community in vivid detail. Some readers might take issue with Chisholm relying on dream-filled memories from young childhood aided by her mother, whom Chisholm does not describe as being a reliably objective data source. Those objections will have to stand. Nonetheless, she offers an interesting understanding of growing up Islamic and female in the modern United States.
Chisholm’s mother joined the Community as a newly married young adult, only to leave a couple of years later in deep frustration. The Community separated children from their parents, and wives, from their husbands. It formed a small patriarchal society where people slept together on the floor in small rooms, with money ultimately flowing to the leader. Years later, the leader was sentenced to decades of jail for child abuse. Racial empowerment lay behind the Community’s wider appeal, but inconsistencies seemed to haunt its reality.
Aside from these religious and cultural dynamics, the story also explores Chisholm’s own family structure. Despite claiming positional leadership of her family, her father did not play a tremendous role in her upbringing. Her mother struggled to forge an identity independent of him and Islam. Like many families, theirs consisted of more than just its immediate members.
In concluding chapters, Chisholm considers how her Islamic identity faced adversity while in New York City during 9/11. Honestly, these type of thoughts deserve a book of their own. Sure, including these chapters allows marketers to advertise this book as a memoir including 9/11, but these thoughts really deserve their own piece, spanning many more pages. Chisholm’s observations during this time deserve to be explored and heard, but this book abbreviates them too much.
Overall, this is an interesting autobiography describing what it means to be a black, Muslim girl growing up in New York City. It also describes the cultic Community in vivid detail. Some readers might take issue with Chisholm relying on dream-filled memories from young childhood aided by her mother, whom Chisholm does not describe as being a reliably objective data source. Those objections will have to stand. Nonetheless, she offers an interesting understanding of growing up Islamic and female in the modern United States.
June 20, 2022
Initially, I was totally sucked into this book. The descriptions of Ummi (Jamiyla’s mother) quitting her job and deciding to follow her husband to The Community was absolutely fascinating and I felt immediately invested in this woman and her daughter navigating a cult.
Unfortunately, the excitement fell off quickly. The book jumps around a lot from before the cult and inside the cult without a ton of details about how the cult actually ran or how the cult leader eventually ended up in prison. I’ll attribute this to the fact that the author was very young when she first entered the cult and her mother never really communicated with her after they left.
There are a lot of deep looks into growing up black and what the author’s extended black family was like, growing up Muslim in a vastly non-Muslim area with bullying and the eventual terror of post 911 NYC, and the relationship between mother and daughter. Meaning: so many excellent and interesting topics simply not delivered in a well-organized way, in my opinion. Jamiyla’s life and all her lessons learned seem so incredible, but this book needed a better “plan.”
If you’re looking for a book about a cult, this really isn’t it. But if you’re looking for 70’s-00’s life in NYC as a minority with a broken home life, it really is an interesting look and worth the read.
Unfortunately, the excitement fell off quickly. The book jumps around a lot from before the cult and inside the cult without a ton of details about how the cult actually ran or how the cult leader eventually ended up in prison. I’ll attribute this to the fact that the author was very young when she first entered the cult and her mother never really communicated with her after they left.
There are a lot of deep looks into growing up black and what the author’s extended black family was like, growing up Muslim in a vastly non-Muslim area with bullying and the eventual terror of post 911 NYC, and the relationship between mother and daughter. Meaning: so many excellent and interesting topics simply not delivered in a well-organized way, in my opinion. Jamiyla’s life and all her lessons learned seem so incredible, but this book needed a better “plan.”
If you’re looking for a book about a cult, this really isn’t it. But if you’re looking for 70’s-00’s life in NYC as a minority with a broken home life, it really is an interesting look and worth the read.
January 5, 2023
Completely Unreasonable
I don’t like this book. It has memories for a two year old! If you remember when you were in diapers, your parents sent you to kindergarten untrained.
But I also struggled to understand why this author chose to write and publish this memoir. She seems to think that being dark skinned and the victim of a cult is sufficient to tell as story. It might be, but I don’t want I to hear it this way. I want the truth told, and the beginning makes the whole dubious.
I don’t like this book. It has memories for a two year old! If you remember when you were in diapers, your parents sent you to kindergarten untrained.
But I also struggled to understand why this author chose to write and publish this memoir. She seems to think that being dark skinned and the victim of a cult is sufficient to tell as story. It might be, but I don’t want I to hear it this way. I want the truth told, and the beginning makes the whole dubious.
January 11, 2023
Crazy cults
Thank you for sharing your experience in this cult. I couldn’t imagine what it was like and the everlasting effects of it! Wow!
Thank you for sharing your experience in this cult. I couldn’t imagine what it was like and the everlasting effects of it! Wow!
March 2, 2023
This is a beautifully written memoir about the author's childhood years in a high control religious community and the legacy of that experience for her personally and for her relationship with her family, especially her mother. Although it's a very short read, Jamiyla packs a great deal of richly intimate detail into the pages. I'm a big fan of memoirs generally and have read many. It's readily apparent this was written by a talented writer / storyteller and journalist. Her ability to pace difficult conversations with her mother about their time in the cult and their family history, as well as to immerse us in their world at various stages has roots in her work as a journalist and storyteller. I cannot recommend this highly enough.
January 15, 2023
This book was very poorly written. It made it hard to read and follow. It purported to be the memoir of a woman whose parents were in a cult when she was young. It jumped around so much that by the end I really wasn’t sure what her point was. Besides the text being hard to follow, the writing was poor. There were many sentences that I couldn’t understand. I would have to read things many times to try to figure out what she was saying. I was excited to read this book and the premise was good. I am sad that the author just didn’t take it anywhere.
June 6, 2022
I love a good "left the cult" memoir because I experienced Christian cultism as a child and young adult. Chisholm brought some insights into what the Community, a Black-Muslim group in NY led by the infamous Dwight York was like. Chisholm went to great detail describing the look and feel of the Community but it was hard to believe all these memories came from a three-year-old. She did not discuss York in detail and whether she or her parents had frequent direct interaction with him while they lived there. She did not address how her parents felt about York going to jail and their opinions or knowledge of his child abuse. Chisholm did not state whether she was abused by him directly or if she had any memories of him being in the children's room with her. Was her mother able to go to Macy's with York's wives because she had a relationship with York? Was this why her mother was approved for the infant duty for all those months? Was York the man walking towards her while she was on punishment in the backyard at 1am? Were children left in the backyard on 'punishment' for York's access? Chisholm left a lot of questions in the reader's mind blank by leaving York out of the personal details. Perhaps for neutrality? For self-healing? It leaves the reader wanting to know more. The story takes a turn as Chisholm reflects on the events of 9/11 and her feelings on racism and injustice in America and ends abruptly with her learning how to love from parents. The ending seemed fake since she spent the entire book reflecting on her anger and disappointment.
November 8, 2022
Rather than a memoir about the author's experience in 'The Community', this is a book about family, trauma, mental abuse and other forms of abuse linked to the author's unconventional upbringing and familial relationships. In that way, the blurb and the title are very misleading, because while having been a member of The Community had an ongoing impact on the author's life, it felt like they were reaching to make connections between it and the rest of the situations talked about in the memoir. They were too young to recount the experience fully, so often rely on others' recollections, particularly that of their mother, which can hardly be unbiased. This means we don't get much about life in The Community, but dramatic moments strung together by the thread of that initial trauma, which doesn't make for a particularly strong book - in my opinion - and it's not well written enough to be compelling in spite of that, unfortunately. Glad I got this through Amazon First Reads, as I would have been annoyed to have paid full price for a book that was so obviously mismarketed.
May 5, 2022
I received this book on Amazon first reads. I picked it because I wanted to learn more about cults, religion and the story of a black family fighting for what the believe in. This book has historical events and memories from jamiyla herself and what she experienced. Both of those created a book that gives you a different perspective on life and how things are for other people ! I'm glad I read it.
May 18, 2022
Ms. Chisholm’s memoir captivated me. Her early experiences in The Community and its far reaching effects in her life and her family’s lives moved me. I look forward to rereading this book.
January 12, 2023
3.5 stars
I will admit that this book was not what I expected. I was not expecting it to be as introspective as it was. I do always appreciate seeing the world, if not just a portion of it, through someone else's eyes and experiences.
I will admit that this book was not what I expected. I was not expecting it to be as introspective as it was. I do always appreciate seeing the world, if not just a portion of it, through someone else's eyes and experiences.
September 5, 2022
In 1978, when Nicole (Jamiyla) was two years old, her mother Nancy (Ummi) quit her job, converted to Islam with her husband, and moved into an exclusive Muslim society in Brooklyn. Once inside the Community, the family was separated by its powerful and charismatic leader, Dwight York (Imam Isa), who has since been convicted of gross child abuse. Instead of a devotional refuge, the Community became a nightmare filled with controlled abuse. Jamiyla and her mom stayed for two years before escaping to live with her father's girlfriend.
Despite escaping the cult, Jamiyla and her mom continued to experience side effects. Eventually, bad dreams, disturbing memories and inexplicable rage prompted Jamiyla to question her mom about their time in the Community. And she continued questioning despite her mother's resistance and memory "loss".
Only after Jamiyla moved to Japan after 9/11 did she begin to see some perspective on her mom's behavior. The pair eventually reconciled. The result is this book.
I admire Jamiyla for writing her story. It brings up issues like race, racism, racial prejudice, desire to belong, community, and connection. But I'm not prompted to discuss any of these issues with others, which is unfortunate because a good memoir in my opinion prompts conversation.
Likewise, the words didn't contain any emotional connection to me. And the writing style is formal and dry rather than conversational.
The author also mentions current events and slams President Trump. She did not offer the same treatment to Presidents when discussing racial conflicts in the 50s and 60s. The intentional oversight and political rant are offputting. However, this is her book and her story, so I recognize that she can write what she wishes.
Despite escaping the cult, Jamiyla and her mom continued to experience side effects. Eventually, bad dreams, disturbing memories and inexplicable rage prompted Jamiyla to question her mom about their time in the Community. And she continued questioning despite her mother's resistance and memory "loss".
Only after Jamiyla moved to Japan after 9/11 did she begin to see some perspective on her mom's behavior. The pair eventually reconciled. The result is this book.
I admire Jamiyla for writing her story. It brings up issues like race, racism, racial prejudice, desire to belong, community, and connection. But I'm not prompted to discuss any of these issues with others, which is unfortunate because a good memoir in my opinion prompts conversation.
Likewise, the words didn't contain any emotional connection to me. And the writing style is formal and dry rather than conversational.
The author also mentions current events and slams President Trump. She did not offer the same treatment to Presidents when discussing racial conflicts in the 50s and 60s. The intentional oversight and political rant are offputting. However, this is her book and her story, so I recognize that she can write what she wishes.
Read
February 2, 2023it's already weird rating a memoir, so if i feel it's less than 4 or 5 stars, i'm not comfortable rating.
i really wanted to enjoy this, because it's always interesting to hear from cult survivors, but the tone and writing is very uneven, and not in the typical nature of a memoir - it's just disjointed. i get a lot of it is fuzzy recollections of a small child, with the author repositioning herself at that age, but sometimes the passages come across as too hollow instead of genuine because of the flowery language. i enjoy the concept of exploring memories and being uncertain of just how real they are, but there's something that just doesn't work for me.
two parts just make me straight up uncomfortable: when discussing the birth and meeting of her little brother, the author misgenders him frequently. i get it's because as a child she wanted a sister and believed she had a sister for a brief period of time, but the way it's included in the narrative just feels awkward. i also absolutely despise a point in the post-9/11 chapter where being a muslim is compared to "using the name voldemort in harry potter's world." can we please move past this? can we leave jkr and references to harry potter in the past?? i am so tired
i really wanted to enjoy this, because it's always interesting to hear from cult survivors, but the tone and writing is very uneven, and not in the typical nature of a memoir - it's just disjointed. i get a lot of it is fuzzy recollections of a small child, with the author repositioning herself at that age, but sometimes the passages come across as too hollow instead of genuine because of the flowery language. i enjoy the concept of exploring memories and being uncertain of just how real they are, but there's something that just doesn't work for me.
two parts just make me straight up uncomfortable: when discussing the birth and meeting of her little brother, the author misgenders him frequently. i get it's because as a child she wanted a sister and believed she had a sister for a brief period of time, but the way it's included in the narrative just feels awkward. i also absolutely despise a point in the post-9/11 chapter where being a muslim is compared to "using the name voldemort in harry potter's world." can we please move past this? can we leave jkr and references to harry potter in the past?? i am so tired
July 7, 2022
I'm giving this book 3-1/2 stars in my Reading Log. It's interesting enough, but not great. I mean, much of the "memoir" takes place when the writer is 3-4-5-6 years old. Sorry, but it's pretty difficult to get much accurate detail thinking that far back on one's life, even when there are traumatic issues, like there were in this book. Abandonment issues are serious, though, and the "example" of the father & mother in this tale is terrible, uncalled for, & would have been difficult for anyone. The "community" of African American Muslims in NYC is tragic, destroying many lives, and ending with a so-called "prophet" who receives a justified 135-year prison sentence for multiple multiples of sexual assaults. So sad to see these kinds of tragic results from a minority people seeking to establish their identity in the midst of racist treatment by the majority. Real modern-day issues that our western culture--in its headlong abandonment of God & absolutes & biblical morality--must deal with.
May 19, 2022
I kept thinking this book would get better, but for me it never did. It is a memoir about a toddler whose parents decide to join a Muslim community led by a man who ends up in prison for child sexual abuse. When Jamiyla's mother, Ummi, finally leaves and takes her with her, they begin a very different and confusing life for the young girl. As she grows up, she begins to question her mother about the experience, trying to understand how Ummi could have taken her daughter to that place where all of them were separated and she was physically abused.
Most of this book is about coming to terms with memory and reality. In the final pages, Jamiyla goes into a rant about how terrible white people are and how Black people have to construct alternate spaces for themselves. I get that, but still can't understand how this cult was a better choice.
Most of this book is about coming to terms with memory and reality. In the final pages, Jamiyla goes into a rant about how terrible white people are and how Black people have to construct alternate spaces for themselves. I get that, but still can't understand how this cult was a better choice.
June 29, 2022
⭐️⭐️
The author and her mother escaped from The Community and had to deal with the trama for the rest of their lives. The author was very young while she was in the cult with her parents; she was aged 2-4, so there isn’t a lot of her own recollections or too many details. I wanted to read more about the leader and the actual cult but that was lacking. All that was mentioned was his name, the abuse convictions, and prison sentence. The writing itself was a struggle and kind of all over the place. The last lines came across as disingenuous; the author stated her parents taught her love but their their inactions and negligence I did not see the love.
The author and her mother escaped from The Community and had to deal with the trama for the rest of their lives. The author was very young while she was in the cult with her parents; she was aged 2-4, so there isn’t a lot of her own recollections or too many details. I wanted to read more about the leader and the actual cult but that was lacking. All that was mentioned was his name, the abuse convictions, and prison sentence. The writing itself was a struggle and kind of all over the place. The last lines came across as disingenuous; the author stated her parents taught her love but their their inactions and negligence I did not see the love.
May 21, 2022
An Interesting and Heartbreaking Read
This was a good book, one I read over just a few days because I didn’t want to put it down. The author writes with raw, genuine emotion, sharing her early experiences with a cult that preached love and family unity but practiced something very different that ran directly into abuse and separation. My heart hurt for the very young girl stripped from her mother and their long journey ahead. I’ve never read anything like this before and I wholeheartedly applaud this author. I definitely recommend this book!
This was a good book, one I read over just a few days because I didn’t want to put it down. The author writes with raw, genuine emotion, sharing her early experiences with a cult that preached love and family unity but practiced something very different that ran directly into abuse and separation. My heart hurt for the very young girl stripped from her mother and their long journey ahead. I’ve never read anything like this before and I wholeheartedly applaud this author. I definitely recommend this book!
October 13, 2022
Meh. I’m not sure what this book was trying to be. Her experience in The Community? (Which was mostly secondhand information because she was so young) Leaving The Community? Racism? Her relationship with her mother? I wish the author had picked one thread and stuck with it. I expected to come away from this book knowing more about The Community - its history, leader, downfall, etc - but there is very little of that. This felt much more like her personal memoir than a memoir about her time in The Community.
June 8, 2022
Thanks for the giveaway. I enjoyed reading this book a lot. It was not what I expected but reading about a cult and how it shaped the life of the author was impactful. I would be interested to read more about the cult and the leader or more perspectives, but from what the author stated at the beginning it seems like most people are against speaking up about things that occurred or are worried about repercussions.
May 11, 2022
Heartfelt and moving
I received this book through a Goodreads Giveaway. Its the story if a precocious young girl whose parents join a community of religious and social change activists. She struggles to understand what her mothers' motives for this were. The experience and its ramifications color her life today. Honest and deep.
I received this book through a Goodreads Giveaway. Its the story if a precocious young girl whose parents join a community of religious and social change activists. She struggles to understand what her mothers' motives for this were. The experience and its ramifications color her life today. Honest and deep.
May 6, 2022
great book
Jamiyla grabbed me by the throat and didn't let go until I'd read the epilogue.
What's life like in a cult? She tells her story well, both from her perspective and her mother's
Jamiyla grabbed me by the throat and didn't let go until I'd read the epilogue.
What's life like in a cult? She tells her story well, both from her perspective and her mother's
August 31, 2022
3.5 rounded up—steadily improved over the book for me. Succinct length. Cultish/recent history
"Everyone had a good time that day, but after all the mess was made, the women were left to clean the fine dust off the walls and from between the floorboards."
"Everyone had a good time that day, but after all the mess was made, the women were left to clean the fine dust off the walls and from between the floorboards."
September 27, 2022
Took me forever to read this book, guess I’m picky….
I will say it wasn’t my fave book, I did stick through it and finish. Sad to read about The Community- a cult and what affect it left on one little girl, now adult that decided to write about it.
I will say it wasn’t my fave book, I did stick through it and finish. Sad to read about The Community- a cult and what affect it left on one little girl, now adult that decided to write about it.
June 3, 2022
Good perspective
The author writes well to help me place myself i the story. This is a great memoir of a situation you don’t hear about a lot. I was pleasantly surprised
The author writes well to help me place myself i the story. This is a great memoir of a situation you don’t hear about a lot. I was pleasantly surprised
April 2, 2023
The Community is told from Jamiyla's POV and it was an interesting story. I was expecting more about life within the cult walls, but this is more of a memoir of Jamiyla's and her family's life both within the cult and life after they left. Once thing that surprised me was how easy it was to walk away from he Black Muslim cult, Nuwaubian Nation. I know I had to take this account with a grain of salt as Jamiyla was only two when they moved into the cult, so these "memories" had to have been told to her. It was not what I was expecting when I picked this book up, but I did find it an emotional and heartbreaking book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 267 reviews