Book Review of
The House of My Mother

Lynn's Review

The House of My Mother by Shari Franke is a memoir published in 2025.

Shari Franke is the oldest child of the blogger and influencer behind the YouTube channel Eight Passengers. 

You might have seen the headlines in 2023 and 2024 about the Mormon mom and influencer who, with her partner/roommate, was arrested for child abuse and neglect. 

This book is Shari’s story of growing up with an influencer mom who shared her family’s life with the world. Sheri’s story also describes how her mom had a strict moral code and demanded perfection, both on and off the camera. 

But it is also the story of how her mom was heavily influenced by a life and relationship coach who encouraged strict discipline and unrealistic expectations that led to extreme child abuse and neglect. 

The House of My Mother by Shari Franke is an example of why I love to read memoirs. They take you to a world that you will never live in. They give you a picture of the reality of our world. We often think that certain things would never happen in this day and age or that it wouldn’t happen in our country, or our city, or our neighborhood. But tragic things are all around us. We live in a sin-filled world. 

I don’t want to read books that glorify sin and difficult things, but I do enjoy reading books that offer a glimpse into how people live and that often involve horrible things. 

This book would be great for people who love dysfunctional family memoirs or memoirs about cults. It isn’t exactly about cults, but it has some cultish-like events in it. 

I think this book is a must read for anyone who is an influencer and has kids on their social media, website, or You-Tube channel. 

I have been in the online world since 2008, when I started Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures. My youngest child was six when I started by blog. He is now a grown adult and college graduate.

When I started blogging, there was no Instagram, and Facebook was just starting to be used by businesses. It was a totally different online world back then

One of the things I did though, that I am very thankful for, is that my kids were never the focus of my site or social media. 

You will find very few pictures or videos of my kids online. That was on purpose. My daughter does help me on this site, but we started this site when she was seventeen, and even then she did not do a lot on social media for this site until she was eighteen. 

After reading The House of My Mother, I am even more thankful I made the decision. 

The House of My Mother is an extreme case. The vast majority of influencers are not like Shari Franke’s mom. However, a lot of what went on in the early days of Ruby Franke’s online and YouTube life are things a lot of families of influencers go through. 

Shari shares what it is like to be the child of someone who is always putting the details of life online. Everything becomes about views, clicks, and money. Normal everyday child and family things, become all about portraying an image to your followers. That image is impossible to live up to and the pressure to live up to it is extreme. 

I think in the years ahead, there will be many kids of influencers who share stories similar to Shari Franke’s. They may not be as extreme or as severe of child abuse, but I think we will see quite a few stories about the realities of what life is really like when you are on constant display to the world. 

This book does contain child abuse and other horrific things so that it won’t be a book for everyone.