Book Review: Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life by Sarah Edmondson

Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life by Sarah Edmondson
Publisher: Chronicle Prism
Publication Date: September 17, 2019
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

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.

If you haven’t heard of the NXIVM cult, it started out as a self-help type organization with expensive personal and professional development seminars that were supposed to help you realize your full potential as a human. It was structured as an MLM – the more people a member brought in and got to sign up for the seminars, the more money the member made. Of course, most of the money went back into the company as there were always more seminars and workshops for members to pay for and attend.

Edmondson was in NXIVM for years, slowly working her way up the ranks when one day her best friend, who was one of the highest-ranking people in the organization, asked her to be in a secret club where Sarah would be the slave and she would be the master. She sold it to her as a group of women helping other women grow and develop. However, it soon became clear that wasn’t the case. The “slaves” were actually being groomed to be sex slaves for NXIVM’s leader.

You may recall when actress Allison Mack was arrested for sex trafficking. I was shocked that the fresh-faced blond could have been involved in something so sinister. I was hoping that Scarred would give me some background on Mack and how she became involved and ended up the head sex slave master but it didn’t. Edmondson was based in Canada and ran what could be described as a branch office of NXIVM, while Mack, her slaves, and the organization’s headquarters were based in Albany. This turned out to be very lucky for Edmondson. She was able to remain on the periphery of the sex cult. However, that means that her book doesn’t have many details about what the lives of the woman having to interact with Mack in person was like. There are two documentary series about the cult that I’m told have a lot more information about the nitty-gritty than this book does. I’m afraid to say that this book was a bit of a snooze. It piqued my interest in NXIVM but I was left wanting more.