The House Of My Mother

In 2023 many of us watched as the news broke about mommy vlogger Ruby Franke was arrested for child abuse along with her friend Jodi Hildebrandt. Jodi had a life coaching website titled ConneXions which many claim is a cult. The House Of My Mother, however tells the story from behind the Viral 8 Passengers family vlog and the significant amount of emotional abuse she suffered from Ruby beginning before Jodi came into their lives.

Information We Know as well as the New

I remember the story about Ruby Franke & Jodi Hildebrandt becoming breaking news in 2023. I watched every video on YouTube discussing them and my grandmother and I watched Court TV discussing them. While the book has information those of us following the story knew of already when the case became big, there’s a lot of information that we didn’t know. One part of the book discussed how both Ruby & Kevin Franke sent Chad Franke to Jodi & at Jodi’s advice sent him to a place for wayward kids in the forest a sort of boot camp just cause Chad was a typical teenager. At one point Shari was sent to Jodi by Ruby and it was shocking reading about Jodi beating Shari down. There was another part in the book where Shari was sleeping on the couch while Jodi was staying with the family, Shari saw Ruby sneak out of her room meaning Ruby and Jodi were having a lesbian affair despite their strict Mormon beliefs. There’s so much I want to touch on, but it would spoil the book. I admire Shari’s strength, determination and willingness to forgive, but I felt that she was a bit too forgiving of Kevin because he’s just as guilty for allowing everything to happen and he did go along with Ruby by sending Chad & Shari to Jodi. I like how the memoir acknowledges that the counseling website ConneXions is a cult and the numerous allegations of Jodi painting the husbands as sexual predators. I hope more investigations go into exposing ConneXions & that someone writes about their experiences there. I wish Shari all the best in the world and for her to live a happy life and break the cycles so her children won’t grow up the same way she and her siblings have.