A coming-of-age memoir set against the backdrop of isolation and extreme belief. A bit of cult intrigue, abuse survival, and an unlikely love story.
Can't You Just Get Over It is set in the southeastern Colorado prairie in a fundamentalist religious cult called The Assembly of YHWHHOSHUA. It is an intimate journey into key, pivotal moments in the author's life as the first child to be born into and to grow up as a fully committed member. As a teenager, she rejected the entire belief system and decided to leave. On her way out, she married, and the pastor declared that anyone who attended the wedding would be "cut off." Consequently, nearly half the congregation also left with her, triggering a rapid disintegration of the group. Five years later, there was nothing left. The choices she had to make along the way, like exposing her abuser and challenging the hierarchy and hypocrisy inherent in the group, required courage that she didn't realize she had until well into adulthood. This book is the realization of a promise she made to expose the architects of that tumultuous childhood for her sake and for those of the kids she grew up with.