Peggy Riley

The Goodreads blurb says this book is about G-d, sex, faith, and family. WRONG. This is a bland, uncreative novel about a polygamy group shoddily cobbled together from several real-life cults, and the author even points this out in narration. The cults are spinoffs of branches of Christianity, as she indicates. The sex this blurb refers to is in fact ongoing sexual abuse of a minor. Also a few women in this book do love each other, but it's just done to increase the angst, rather than portray same-sex romantic relationships respectfully (triple alliteration, hah!). There is a lot of "telling and not showing" of Amity's dedication to Sorrow. So, the Goodreads blurb is wrong.

And to think, I was so pleased when I'd found this again after reading it years ago. Other reviewers have pointed out: nothing happens in this book; the mom is pointless; and the author could have made different choices for an interesting book. The author is so mired in her world-building, that she should have just stayed with that. Don't open up with the escape--have it be the final page. The book would have been so much shorter and concise. Instead, the way the author wrote this book means the mom's only purpose is for exposition. Her daughters exposit heavily, too, but do much more to drive the barely-there plot along. Having the escape be the final page would have made more sense narratively. We wouldn't be jerked back and forth to different spots in the past and recent past to vague present. This book is 99% narrative passages. The descriptions are bland. I never once cared about anyone.

Save yourself time and read another book. Goodreads has several lists with similar themes the book was apparently supposed to be about.… (més)

Amaranth and her daughters, Amity & Sorrow, have fled their family and their life in a polygamist religious compound with nowhere to go and Amaranth's only thought being to get them as far away as possible. But when the car crashes in rural Oklahoma and she is forced to rely on a farmer for help (one of many things that challenges the strict rules they've all been taught to follow), she is also forced to confront the past, the present, and the future for both herself and her daughters.

A gripping tale of the aftermath of being indoctrinated into what I can only describe as a cult, Amity & Sorrow contains some difficult content but is one of those books that really hits you emotionally. The layers of Amaranth, Amity, and Sorrow's experiences that are slowly revealed over the course of the book through narrative and flashbacks are complex and provide the reader with a dark and vivid picture of their lives before the book begins.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, though I know it's not one everyone is likely to enjoy. It's gritty and certainly isn't a shiny happy tale, and I know some people don't like books like that. But I'd still encourage people to give it a chance.

Content warnings: mentions of child abuse, sexual abuse, and incest; religious fundamentalism

(eGalley provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)… (més)