Holy Disruptor: Shattering the Shiny Facade By Getting Louder with the Truth

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. (Oct.)