Shari Franke’s childhood was a constant battle for survival. Her mother, Ruby Franke, enforced a severe moral code while maintaining a façade of a picture-perfect family for their wildly popular YouTube channel 8 Passengers, which documented the day-to-day life of raising six children for a staggering 2.5 million subscribers. But a darker truth lurked beneath the surface – Ruby’s wholesome online persona masked a more tyrannical parenting style than anyone could have imagined.

As the family’s YouTube notoriety grew, so too did Ruby’s delusions of righteousness. Fueled by the sadistic influence of relationship coach Jodi Hildebrandt, together they implemented an inhumane and merciless disciplinary regime.

Ruby and Jodi were arrested in Utah in 2023 on multiple charges of aggravated child abuse. On that fateful day, Shari shared a photo online of a police car outside their home. Her caption had one word: ‘Finally’.

For the first time, Shari will reveal the disturbing truth behind 8 Passengers and her family’s devastating involvement with Jodi Hildebrandt’s cultish life coaching program, ‘ConneXions’. No stone is left unturned as Shari exposes the perils of influencer culture and shares for the first time her battle for truth and survival in the face of her mother’s cruelty.

I learned of the Franke’s, much like the majority of the world, from the arrests of Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt. I remember feeling horror at what the children must have gone through, and at the sense of obscurity surrounding this. I was talking about it to my parents recently and the argument of religion came up because of the Franke’s being Mormon. I think it is easier to blame religion as the root cause because religion has expanded so much that there are many ‘offshoots’ of religion that can spiral. Many turn into cults, many don’t. I don’t think it is fair to lay religion at the blame door because it is much deeper than that.

We all have the propensity to be both good and evil. I am not sure that I am a believer that people are born evil. I think it is more than people are shaped by the environment they are in; as a consequence, they survive, creating behaviours, patterns, or actions that define them as good or bad, respectively.

Listening to this audiobook was utterly fascinating. Not only because it is read by Shari, but because, from a psychological perspective, it was an intimate dive into the psyche of collective indoctrination.

I could wax endlessly on the psychological mind-field of what happened to this family, but you would get bored, and I would fall into endless jargon.

Shari shares her story with a level of truth that some would find hard to believe. She is unapologetic in how she tells the story and lays herself bare. It is clear that she has worked through with therapy the impact of her childhood and the behaviour of the adults around her. She now understands how her responses and survival strategies shaped her childhood and her growth into adulthood, and can reflect on her experience.

I looked her up on Instagram after I finished listening to this book. I was pleased to find that she has built a good life for herself, has become an activist for children’s rights, and has found happiness in her own relationships. I understand the need to keep her personal life private and not discuss her four youngest siblings in her book.

I did shake my head a lot while reading this book. The state of America at present is worrisome. It is becoming more worrisome. The overall fate of children in America has been a worry on my mind on and off through the years, but since I do not live in America, it is a distant worry accompanied by deep pity.

If you have heard of the Franke case, have an interest in true crime, or want to have a candid perspective on a highly publicised account, this is worth a read.