I just finished listening to the audiobook "Hometown Betrayal," and it left a profound impact on me. The story delves into the life of Valerie, a mother navigating the complex, often challenging environment of Utah’s Mormon community. It’s a deeply poignant account of her struggles, illustrating the internal battles she faces as she tries to raise her children in a setting that can be both beautiful and confining.

Valerie’s journey is not an easy one. The audiobook captures her relentless fight against societal expectations and personal convictions, and my heart went out to her as she grappled with her own beliefs while trying to provide a sense of normalcy for her children. Growing up in such a challenging atmosphere must have been incredibly difficult for them, and the way the story portrays their experiences is both heartbreaking and inspiring.

The narrator did an exceptional job bringing this poignant story to life. With sensitivity and grace, she navigated the heavier themes while also capturing the moments of lightness that Valerie finds amidst her struggles. It couldn’t have been easy to communicate the weight of these circumstances, but the narrator’s skillful delivery made the emotions resonate deeply within me.

"Hometown Betrayal" is a powerful exploration of resilience, faith, and the unbreakable bond of motherhood. It’s a story that will stay with you long after the final chapter, shedding light on the complexities of life in a tightly-knit community. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a thought-provoking and deeply moving audiobook experience.

Hometown Betrayal
By Emily Benedek
Narrated by Maria Mcann

Published April 1,2025

TRIGGER WARNINGS for SA This was a hard book to rate because this was real and there were real survivors and it had such long term consequences on them and their families. I never realized just how bad things were regarding this, I knew that this went on but the details were so alarming. I had to keep putting this down because I was sick to my stomach that people could do these things. It felt journalistic not so much a book.

Thank you NetGalley and Greenleaf Audiobooks for the ALC audiobook. All opinions are my own.

This is a tragic story and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I thought it was going to be more of a story like Educated but it was not. It did reference that book in it though. Sad to see this is a reality in life.

This was such a sad story. I can not imagine how Valarie would have felt not to be believed when she had told her story. For the entire town to not believe her and to hide what vile men they had in their town. Hopefully with this book more people will see that it's important to believe the victims.

Thank you, NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this book. As an ex-Mormon, I was drawn to the premise of Hometown Betrayal. It's awful what the author had to endure at the hands of people who cared for her. This book fell a bit short for me. I'm unsure if it's because I've been watching and listening to so many awful renditions of atrocities done by religious leaders. But this one didn't grip me the way other stories have.
I'm still thankful for the chance I had to read it.

this was absolutely so well written, but also so completely heartbreaking. I think a lot of us live in a sense that ‘it couldn’t happen to me’ or if we don’t know anyone it’s happened to directly then we turn a blind eye.

BUT this is happening and it’s happening in our neighborhoods and to people we know and people we don’t know.

This story was handled with so much care, and the way that Valerie’s story was told was done in such a caring way while also shining light on how childhood sexual abuse could impact not only the individual but also entire generational line up.

I listened to this as an audiobook, and it was absolutely so captivating. My heart broke for the entire family and i was so fuming at the officers that allowed this to happen.

We need to be putting more light onto this. We need to make people uncomfortable to help stop this.

Hometown Betrayal was genuinely one of the hardest listens I’ve picked up in a good long while. Ever since I had my daughter 2 years ago, I’ve significantly cut back on listening/watching/reading true crime. This book made reminded me why! It was wonderfully written and a fascinating, heartbreaking story, but it was so hard to finish!

A powerful, devastating read that will leave you wondering how a community could fail its people – and especially it’s children – so deeply.

Side note: I did have to fast forward in one particular chapter because I just couldn’t listen. (There is fair warning at the beginning of that specific chapter.)

Thank you to NetGalley, Greenleaf Audiobooks, and Emily Benedek for the free ARC in exchange for my review!

I find it challenging to review true stories and true crime because I find the material important but not enjoyable in the suffering of others, making it difficult to assign a star rating.

This deeply painful book delves into Valerie’s horrific abuse, lifelong trauma, and its impact on her community and loved ones. Well-researched with firsthand interview accounts, it respectfully handles Valerie’s story.

However, the book spends too much time detailing Valerie and her family’s suffering and not enough on the mishandled investigation. I also wish it had emphasized broader structural issues that led to her abuse and its coverup.

This is a deep dive into Mormonism, the history and culture, as well as the ways that isolation has impacted this religious community through today. It also discusses, in graphic detail, physical and sexual abuse. I was so saddened to hear of the suffering that Valarie, then her family endured from the generational trauma. There were parts that were too graphic for me to read, but the book is a well-researched, thoroughly investigated and important work. This is something that victims may find solace in, knowing that they are not alone and should be believed. My hope is that it changes peoples' view of victims of abuse.

I highly recommend this book, and the audiobook version (the narrator did a great job reflecting Valarie's wispy voice vs. some of the men's gruff voices). I also really appreciated Elizabeth Smart's foreward, and her poignant words on the matter.

This book is tough to read/listen to, but is important for changing the way we help people.

The 4 star is for the writing quality and level of research not for the contents of the book!!!

This is one of the most insane non-fiction books I have ever read I would put this up there with Educated in terms of memoir esque books about the Mormon experience in specifically the more side-ways sub communities and the culture that comes from it that makes these things possible. In terms of the true crime part of this the shock I felt in regards to the things that happened would be up there with I Have Life.

Thank you NetGalley and Greenleaf Book Group Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is as a very heartbreaking story to listen to. It could have been fleshed out more I believe. Seems to be more posthumous focused on retribution. Would have liked to hear more about Valerie and her personal experiences versus the harm she inflicted upon others.

If you’ve experienced sexual abuse in your life and hearing about sexual abuse is a trigger for you then I wouldn’t recommend this book. Do some more research before reading!

This was incredibly heartbreaking. A very interesting look into the individual and generational trauma that occurs after repeated childhood sexual abuse. As a victim of CSA myself, this book was incredibly difficult to read at times, and I really appreciated the individual chapters having their own trigger warnings if necessary.

The origin of this book is a little bit odd, from my understanding the author was asked by Valarie's former husband to write this book after law enforcement failed to hold her abusers accountable. Because of that, I think that the one thing glaringly lacking in this book was a frank and in depth discussion about how Mormonism and many organized religions perpetrate abuse and victim blame. However, I do think that there was enough subtext in there for you to reach your own conclusions.

Overall, I think that Valarie's story is incredibly important and unfortunately not as uncommon as we all wish to think. I hope that the men responsible for what happened to her rot in hell. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book, and please check trigger warnings before picking this one up.

Thank you NetGalley and Greenleaf Book Group Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This was such a heartbreaking and difficult story to listen to. It was very written and you could feel the care the author put in to tell Valarie’s tragic story. It is very shocking to see the traumatic reach one horrible act can have on a family and community. It’s scary how some very evil people hid behind their religion and twist it in a way to make the victims feel like they are the ones that have done wrong.

Going into this book, I thought it could be helpful to anyone going through something similar, or who may think they know someone going through something similar. However, once I realized the woman the book is about was dead, and also did not want to share her story when she was alive, I felt bad for even reading it in the first place.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an e-arc of this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for the audio version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Valarie Clark Miller seemed to have it all. Smart, beautiful, and athletic, with a wealthy, successful husband and growing family, Valarie appeared to be the picture-perfect Mormon wife. But it was all a façade. Inside, she was crumbling from the pressures of long-repressed memories of a childhood plagued with sexual and physical abuse.

In Hometown Betrayal, author Emily Benedek brings you behind the closed doors of the remote Mormon community of Clarkston, Utah. With the help of hundreds of individual stories, she pieces together not only what happened to Valarie, but also the conditions and culture that allowed it. Hometown Betrayal culminates in an account of the Miller family’s fight to hold accountable the men—including the local cop-- who abused Valarie and controlled the systems designed to look the other way.

It feels wrong to critique such a horrible situation but this is book review, so hear it goes. Valarie's story is sad and atrocious but I found it hard to follow and a little dismissive of what she endured and more about retribution posthumously. While it's important to highlight the effects her abuse had on her mothering and her ability to love, I wanted to hear more about Valarie and how others felt about her as a victim. The book felt journalistic in nature but lacked the defendants side of the story.

Format Audible Audio
Published April 1, 2025 by Greenleaf Book Group
⭐⭐.5

Very disturbing content. I can’t understand how things with Valerie were so mishandled. I also hate that it seems the doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her and just treated her with painkillers making her addicted to those.
The story itself is ok, but I wish it read more as a story than a report. At times it was hard to listen to just because of this. It needs more of a storytelling to it. The narrator was fine, nothing memorable but overall ok.

The story really sheds a light on how women aren’t believed and also how generational trauma is a real thing and can affect everyone around the victim.

Overall very interesting and heartbreaking

Thank you NetGalley for the read

Title: I feel the title, despite not matching what Valerie herself would have used for her book, is very appropriate. I wish it could encompass even more than it does what Valeries hometown did to her, and others.

Story: This story was powerful, infuriating, heartbreaking, stomach nauseating and resilient.

I don't can't even begin to think of how to articulate my anger that I have for Valarie and all the other girls who were victims of these disgusting men in this community...matter of fact, the entire community this poor woman was from for knowing and doing NOTHING! How can you know such horrible things are being done to CHILDREN and WOMEN and do NOTHING and feel no shame?!

The story is equally heartbreaking as it is boiled wrath inducing. I am so mad for Valarie and all that she endured, and that no one helped her, fully, ever...until she died. This woman endure and endured and in the end, she lost everything she loved and simply existed. She deserved so so much more. It makes me so sick.

This story is one that covers so many important topics that no one ever wants to truly look at and be honest about, and it does so quite gracefully, all things and subject matter considered. It's very gentle with the victims, and harshly honest where the perpetrators and their accomplices are concerned.

I love the opening from Elizabeth Smart, I think her statement is accurate and powerful – that we must believe women when they speak up about their abuse and shame the assaulters, not the assaulted. I feel so sad that Valarie never got to read this opening passage, and never know that complete strangers saw her, understood her and believed her.

I also think the book was tactful in being very honest about what happened, but not too grotesquely in detail...but all the same, at points I did have to pause and take a break...the content and reality of what was done to these girls...these CHILDREN, was just too much. It made my stomach turn and my eyes misty. I wanted to find a way to protect them, but I couldn't...the damage was far past already having been done...it's why we have this story.

This story also provides a clear and vivid insight into what generational trauma looks like, how it tears loved ones and families apart and how the trauma that is passed down isn't always done in malice or as a result of narcissist or the like – as I sometimes think we as a society assume. Sometimes trauma that plagues families and is passed down starts from a victim unhealed, lost and scared...unaware fully of what is happening and what they're doing to others – and how that can lead to more guilt and shame for the individual who is already struggling.

I don't know what else to say other than the fact that this book broke my heart, made me so angry for Valarie, other children in her community and her family for all that was done against them. I hate that she never got to see her wrong righted at all. She deserved to have seen someone held responsible, to be apologized to and have the vindication that she's believed. She never got to heal.

I hope that everyone will read her story and learn to be more compassionate, understanding, empathetic and empowering of victims, not their assailants. I hope that even if Valarie didn't get to feel the results and success and weight of what her story has done and will do, that her living children, and all those close to her will, at least. I hope they are able to heal, because they deserve it.

Writing: The writing for this was quite good. I felt it flowed well, and the information that was shared to tie all of the elements and timeline of events together was logical, thoughtful and done in digestible portions. The sensitive matter was treated as such and warning for the very heavy and heard to hear content was shared at appropriate times and with clear understanding of what was to come so you could at least try to brace yourself. I was a little stumbled up at the very start when we were learning of Annie and her accident – and then shifted into Valaries past, as I didn't fully grasp why it was all connected, but once we kept going I sort of forgot to be confused about Annie's story and then once it was tied together as the PTSD trigger that lead to Valarie really spiraling, it all made sense...I would say that might be the one thing I'd liked to transition a bit better or have more clarity upfront..something. Otherwise, well written.

Narrator: I was provided an ARC of the Audiobook – the narrator was okay. I found her to read very slow and for her to space the words in her sentence out in an odd way that left weird gaps in sentences. I had to speed the audio up for it to feel like the book was being read at a normal pace. I am grateful I did, because I cannot imagine the horror of listening to some of the terrible things Valarie and other children endured in a slow and drawn out dialogue. Not my favorite narrator.

Overall: This is a heartbreaking story of betrayal, lies, victim shaming and suppression, the truth of what it means to not be believed, heard or understood and how trauma transcends far deeps and beyond what most can imagine – it can and will plague your mind, body and soul, and then spread into those you love as well, if no one knows any better. I think everyone should read this, those who believe victims and understand the honest and raw truth, and those that don't. I think there is something we can all learn from Valarie's story, and given that she never was seen or heard, I think she deserves for it to be heard and believed, finally.

Thank you NetGallery for an ARC of the Audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

This is a hard read, a story that you'll wish never happened. Hometown Betrayal is the story of Valarie Clark Miller who seems to have it all. Valerie is smart, beautiful, married to a wealthy, successful husband together raising a growing family. Valarie, to outsiders, appears to be the picture-perfect Mormon wife, but inside dark secrets abound. She was crumbling from the pressures of long-repressed memories of a childhood filled with sexual and physical abuse.
Author, Emily Benedek brings readers behind the closed doors of the remote Mormon community of Clarkston, Utah. She unveils what happened to Valarie, as well as the conditions and culture that allowed it.
Narrator was a no frills reader appropriate to the nature of this very serious story.
Truly a heartbreaking listen. I hope this candid account helps other victims.
This is perfect for readers who like true crime stories set in a small town harboring dark secrets.

I thought this book was so wonderfully done. I appreciated that Valerie's story wasn't sugarcoated and emphasized the small town politics that went in to covering up the atrocious crimes. I loved hearing from Valerie's partners and even their children. This story is so important on why we must start by believing.

Hometown Betrayal is a heartbreaking yet essential read. Emily Benedek masterfully unravels the tragic story of Valarie Clark Miller, exposing the systemic failures that allowed her suffering to go unchecked. The book is deeply researched, emotionally charged, and impossible to put down. As a woman, reading this was especially painful—because it reinforces a sad reality: women are too often treated as having less value, their voices silenced, their pain dismissed. Benedek’s work is a powerful reminder that justice is not guaranteed but must be fought for. A must-read for those interested in true crime and social justice.