First off, I drove past Zzyzx my whole life anytime my family drove to Las Vegas, and I always wondered about the place. Then I Googled it as an adult and read about the health spa con. Reading a book that builds a secondary con on top of this site? Pure. Genius.
I loved this book. I like to think of it as a YA Handmaid's Tale crossed with Matched and a dash of Speak. The story is about a young girl living as a second generation in an established cult who receives her first major disappointment at the hands of her leader and begins to doubt her faith in him.
It was so enthralling to read from Miriam's perspective as a child who was born and raised in this compound and literally knows nothing of the outside world. It was such an interesting point of view and it made her banter with Aaron absolutely wonderful. She was a perfect blend of naive, blind-faith, and skeptical intelligence. She was a fantastic MC.
Then there was Caleb, our other point of view in this tale. He was our typical faithful servant / blind follower, and the level of brainwashing that affected this kid was insane. His character was irritating at times, but also easy to forgive because it clearly wasn't entirely his fault. Being blindly molded into a male-dominant/female-submissive society without ever knowing there was another way makes it hard to imagine another way, especially when your leader gives you absolutely zero insight into the outside world, and literally everyone else in the compound just GOES WITH IT. They didn't have any books except for the Bible, for goodness' sake! How was he supposed to know any better, any other way? And yet, I still didn't like him.
Overall, this book was amazing and I could NOT put it down! I needed to know, I needed to know it all, I needed to know how deep it all went, how demented it all was, how sick and pervasive, and PHEW it was good! A couple of twists at the end that I didn't see coming, a few that I totally did, and a (mostly) satisfying ending. Definitely add this one to your TBR!
I loved this book. I like to think of it as a YA Handmaid's Tale crossed with Matched and a dash of Speak. The story is about a young girl living as a second generation in an established cult who receives her first major disappointment at the hands of her leader and begins to doubt her faith in him.
It was so enthralling to read from Miriam's perspective as a child who was born and raised in this compound and literally knows nothing of the outside world. It was such an interesting point of view and it made her banter with Aaron absolutely wonderful. She was a perfect blend of naive, blind-faith, and skeptical intelligence. She was a fantastic MC.
Then there was Caleb, our other point of view in this tale. He was our typical faithful servant / blind follower, and the level of brainwashing that affected this kid was insane. His character was irritating at times, but also easy to forgive because it clearly wasn't entirely his fault. Being blindly molded into a male-dominant/female-submissive society without ever knowing there was another way makes it hard to imagine another way, especially when your leader gives you absolutely zero insight into the outside world, and literally everyone else in the compound just GOES WITH IT. They didn't have any books except for the Bible, for goodness' sake! How was he supposed to know any better, any other way? And yet, I still didn't like him.
Overall, this book was amazing and I could NOT put it down! I needed to know, I needed to know it all, I needed to know how deep it all went, how demented it all was, how sick and pervasive, and PHEW it was good! A couple of twists at the end that I didn't see coming, a few that I totally did, and a (mostly) satisfying ending. Definitely add this one to your TBR!