Holy Disruptor
Shattering the Shiny Facade by Getting Louder with the Truth
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
"Not only was I singled out and shamed, but I was lied to as well. I'm still trying to untangle the lies--some of them televised across the country--from the truth."
You've heard some of the story: the manipulation and abuse hidden behind the traditional Christian values that the Duggar family held up on TLC's hit reality show 19 Kids and Counting. As some of the scandal came to light, several of the Duggar children, including Jill and Jinger, have opened up about what it was like growing up in that environment.
But for the first time, Amy Duggar King--a close relative who spent almost every day with her 19 cousins and her aunt and uncle--brings the story into sharp relief, vulnerably sharing not only what life was like with the Duggars but how she, at the end of the day, had her own broken home to return to, a home that was hiding many other secrets.
Amy knows what it's like to be coerced and have her voice silenced. Her story reveals a world of unrealistic expectations and gaslighting in which a normal young woman had to untangle a web of carefully crafted lies while fighting to protect her own mental health. In that world, she was branded "Crazy Cousin Amy"--an identity she didn't choose but was forced to live into.
In Holy Disruptor, Amy gives her unfiltered testimony to finally break free from the toxic cycles that swirled around her and to confront the trauma she endured off-camera.
In the years since the Duggar family collapse, Amy has intentionally dissociated from the toxic family environment, which has helped her learn how to be a "holy disruptor" and make life-changing decisions for her well-being. This is a story about how she discovered that disrupting such deception is a holy act that brings freedom and joy . . . and it applies to you too. No matter what you've been told or how you've been manipulated in the past, freedom is waiting for you.
It's time to use your voice and get loud with the truth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
King, the only daughter of Jim Bob Duggar's sister Deanna, debuts with an unvarnished account of the disorder and abuse that went on behind the scenes of the 2008–2015 TV show 19 Kids and Counting. King paints her uncle Jim Bob as a ruthless patriarch who hid behind his squeaky-clean Christian image while exploiting the Duggar name for fame and profit and brushing aside anything that might stand in the way, including his oldest son Josh's molestation of his sisters. The author, meanwhile, was framed on the show as "crazy cousin Amy" for listening to "ungodly" music and otherwise being "a normal teenage girl." Against that backdrop, King traces how she evolved from a "black sheep" dismayed by her inability to conform to an empowered "holy disruptor" who sought to break "toxic cycles" of secrecy and abuse by standing up for her values (including by confronting her cousin Josh over his sex abuse crimes). While the prose can be blunt, the author sheds light on the hypocrisies that can be hidden within restrictive forms of Christianity, making important points about unlinking true faith from obedience. It's a shocking look at what was once one of America's most public Christian families.