The shocking and subversive memoir of a 12-year-NXIVM-member-turned-whistleblower, and her inspiring true story of abuse, escape, and redemption.

"Master, would you brand me? It would be an honor."

Scarred follows actress Sarah Edmondson's account of her recruitment into the NXIVM cult founded by Keith Raniere and the 12 years she spent within the organization, during which she enrolled over 2,000 members. This book also chronicles her breaking point and her harrowing fight to get out, help others, and heal.

Sarah Edmondson is a Canadian actress and playwright who has starred in the CBS series Salvation and more than 12 films for the Hallmark Channel and Lifetime.

Complete with personal photographs, this tell-all follows Sarah from the moment she takes her first NXIVM seminar, to the invitation she accepts from her best friend, Lauren Salzman, into DOS a "secret sisterhood" within the cult to her journey toward becoming a key witness in the federal case against its founders.

Readers will learn how cults like NXIVM get started, why people get involved (and stay), and the importance of whistleblowers who bring light to illegal and unethical practices.

Scarred isn't just about NXIVM. It is also a story about abuses of power, the role female friendships play in cults, and how sometimes the search to be "better" can override everything else. In the constant search for self-improvement, how much do you trust the message and messenger?

A thrilling read for fans of true crime and cults, as well as listeners of podcasts like My Favorite Murder and Up and Vanished

Evokes questions about friendship, ethics, good and evil, making it a perfect selection for book clubs.

Great for fans of Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah Remini, Escape by Carolyn Jessop, Beyond Belief by Jenna Miscavige Hill, and Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

Today, Donna Hylton is a groundbreaking advocate for criminal justice reform--she was a featured speaker at the 2017 Women's March on Washington, and she works hand-in-hand with other influential voices such as Eve Ensler, Michelle Alexander (The New Jim Crow), and Rosario Dawson to ensure prison safety and to end mass incarceration in the US. In fact, Dawson has signed on to play Hylton in a movie that's in development now. But in 1986, Hylton experienced prison from the inside when she was sentenced to 25 years-to-life for kidnapping and second-degree murder. Like so many women before her and so many women yet to come, her life had been a nightmare of abuse that left her feeling alone and convinced of her worthlessness. With her sentencing, it seemed that Donna had reached the end--at age 19, due to her own mistakes and bad choices, her life was over. But behind the bars of Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, alongside this generation's most infamous female criminals, Donna learned to fight -- and then, to thrive. For the first time in her life, she realized that she was not alone in the abuse and misogyny that she experienced; as she bonded with her new sisters, she discovered that her pain was not an anomaly, but a commonality among women from all walks of life. It's a reality that she has since vowed to change. Since her release in 2012, Donna has emerged as a leading advocate for criminal justice reform and women's rights who speaks with politicians, violent abusers, prison officials, victims, and students to tell her story. But it's not her story alone, she is quick to say. She also represents the stories of thousands of women who are unable to speak for themselves because they've been silenced, imprisoned, or killed.

As seen in the HBO docuseries THE VOW: The shocking and subversive memoir of a 12-year-NXIVM-member-turned-whistleblower, and her inspiring true story of abuse, escape, and redemption. 'Master, would you brand me? It would be an honor.' From the second I climb onto the table, acutely aware that I am lying in the sweat of my sisters, I will have blocked that out. Lying there completely naked, I am at my most vulnerable but determined to prove my strength. I try to keep my legs closed as my body wills itself to protect my most private area. . . . I tell myself: I am a warrior. I birthed a human. I can handle pain. But nothing could have ever prepared me for the feel of this fire on my skin. Scarred is Sarah Edmondson's compelling memoir of her recruitment into the NXIVM cult, the 12 years she spent within the organization (during which she enrolled over 2,000 members and entered DOS--NXIVM's secret sisterhood), her breaking point, and her harrowing fight to get out, to expose Keith Raniere and the leadership, to help others, and to heal. Complete with personal photographs, Scarred is also an eye-opening story about abuses of power, female trust and friendship, and how sometimes the search to be better can override everything else. - In the tradition of Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman, Escape by Carolyn Jessop, and Troublemaker by Leah Remini - This tell-all follows Sarah from the moment she takes her first NXIVM seminar, to the invitation she accepts from her best friend, Lauren Salzman, into DOS, to her journey toward become a key witness in the federal case against its founders - Evokes questions about friendship, ethics, good and evil, making it a brilliant selection for book clubs Audio edition read by the author.

An endearing and unforgettable memoir of love, self-discovery, and enduring, old-fashioned values

Kristine Gasbarre made a New York career of dating driven, inaccessible men. When she realizes her love life will never result in happiness if she continues on the same path, she makes a big decision--relocating to Italy to discover her roots and find out what defines her adoring grandpa. But upon receiving the news of his sudden passing, she is lured away.

With nowhere left to go, Krissy returns to her small hometown for the first time in a decade to help care for her grandmother--a refined, private matriarch suf?fering from early dementia along with the loss of her husband. In her reluctant agreement to share the nearly lost love stories and transformative lessons from her rich sixty-year marriage, Krissy's grandma becomes the one of?fering comfort as she coaches her granddaughter through the fear of loving. Grandma's unapologetic femininity and secret giving spirit opens Krissy's eyes about relationships, teaching her the single most important requisite for loving a man: first a woman has to learn the power of her own inner beauty.