Megan Phelps-Roper was one of the most tech-savvy and vocal members of the Westboro Baptist church until her sudden change of heart and seemingly sudden departure from the church. Westboro Baptist church is best known for Fred Phelps and their picketing against the gay community, military funerals, and catch phrases that we at FangirlNation don’t want to repeat to our audience of readers. Today Megan Phelps-Roper is an activist fighting against hatred and cruelty. The new book Unfollow is a memoir of her life being raised in what is best described as a cult, and the terrifying period of her life where she chose to break away for the sake of her sanity and that of her sister Grace.
I was at first deeply uncomfortable with the idea of the book Unfollow. I figured it was going to be a collection of short personal stories that tried to make her look like she never wrote horrific things on Twitter or protested military funerals with delight. However, Megan Phelps Roper takes full accountability for her actions in Unfollow. She describes what it was like to grown up in a church where the King James Bible was the be all end all, though the interpretations were regularly used to make the female members of the church fall in line. She describes punishments that qualify as abuse being doled out to “better” the children. Phelps-Roper discussed the strange feeling of being afraid of her mother but also seeking her warmth.
In short, Unfollow does not attempt to hide Megan Phelp-Roper from her past, but rather have her embrace her part in it and show where she has chosen to go from it.
Unfollow is available from Farrar, Straus and Giroux October 8, 2019.
