Spoiler-Free Review

If you ever followed the Duggar family – in particular the sordid realities that came to light in the last decade – you’ll probably like The Book of Essie, which feels almost like a direct commentary on not just the Duggars but the societal norms that allowed them succeed.

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What’s The Book of Essie about?

Essie, the youngest daughter in an evangelical family with a reality TV show called Six for Hicks, is pregnant. Now she must orchestrate her freedom.

I think this one has some important themes.

“On the day I turn seventeen, there is a meeting to decide whether I should have the baby or if sneaking me to a clinic for an abortion is worth the PR risk. I am not invited, which is just as well, since my being there might imply that I have some choice in the matter and I know that I have none.”

The Book of Essie covers it all. It feels like a mix of what we know from the Duggar family and the stage mom “momagers” who rule over their families with an iron fist. From the interpersonal turmoil to the hypocrisy that centers their reality-TV-show-pastor’s-family lifestyle, I was hooked right from the start.

“Daddy would say that segments like this lend an air of humility to the show, but he says it while wearing a three-hundred-dollar tie, so I’m not entirely sure he knows what the word humility really means.”

We follow Essie, the pregnant teenager whom this story is about, as well as Rourke (the teen boy roped into this mess after getting blindsided with arranged marriage) and Liberty (a journalist and one of the the only outsiders Essie trusts). Each POV brings something unique to the story, and provides a new lens through which to view the Hicks family.

“I’d be sold not into slavery but into celebrity, which I realize on some level amounts to pretty much the same thing.”

Overall, I really liked this one and the path the characters walked. I found the story emotionally compelling and the themes important; it’s the kind of story I think most people should read. I will say, the ending was nice but perhaps not too realistic. It felt a little too buttoned-up, and I would’ve liked to see more nuance in the aftermath. But, that might have made for a much longer conclusion.

I started this one physically, then switched to audio. I think it works either way, but it does have a writing style that I tend to enjoy more in an audiobook. It has some backstory mixed in with the narrative, with a feel like someone is telling you their story personally, so it works better with a narrator in my opinion. Plus, there was a different narrator for each of the three POV characters, which made it easy to remember whose chapter I was in.

Should you read The Book of Essie?

I recommend it to fans of coming-of-age stories with religious backdrops (specifically with the tone of critiquing fundamentalism), dysfunctional family dynamics, and which address the struggles of growing up in the public eye.