The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses sexual assault.

Two weeks before Shari was about to begin her freshman year of college, Ruby announced that Jodi was “under siege from Satan himself” (153) and would be moving into Shari’s room to recover. Shari rushed to clear out her room, feeling like she was living in a “circus.” Jodi arrived that very afternoon.

The two weeks that Shari spent in the house with Jodi were “a bizarre, chaotic blur” (156). Jodi was experiencing mysterious visions and trances, and Ruby and Kevin performed “spiritual interventions” to help her heal. Jodi recorded all of these visions, convinced they would one day be “personally validated by God Himself” (157).

Ruby spent most of her time locked away with Jodi in Shari’s room, while Kevin became “a shell of his former self” (157). They left only for occasional Dairy Queen runs and trips across the border to Mexico to stock up on antibiotics for the impending apocalypse. Ruby was ecstatic to have Jodi in the house. For the first time, she had close female friends, and Kevin was feeling more and more shut out. He was forbidden from going upstairs and could only return after leaving the house if he had Ruby’s permission.