Counting the Cost

Counting the Cost is the 2023 memoir of Jill Duggar Dillard, written with her husband Derick Dillard and co-author Craig Borlase, and published by Gallery Books. An instant New York Times bestseller, it is one of three major 2023 reckonings with the Duggar family's public image, following Jinger Duggar Vuolo's memoir and the docuseries Shiny Happy People.

The book pulls back the curtain on life inside one of reality television's most famous families. Jill describes her upbringing under the Institute in Basic Life Principles, the strict rules around courtship and behaviour, and the reality of growing up on camera. She writes candidly about her transition into marriage and motherhood, and about the difficult work of loosening her parents' grip on her adult life.

Most pointedly, the memoir exposes how Jill was financially exploited and threatened by her father over money earned from the show. It is a disquieting, deeply personal story of faith, family control and the cost of breaking free.