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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual harassment
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
This was just dragging on and on. The writing was quite nice but it seemed to just be circling and circling around her family and the past and present. It touches on the brethrens for a bit but then goes back out to other things in her family, and it just feels like it's going to take forever to get anywhere.
I thought this was going to be more interesting than it was even though there was a lot in her frame of reference that I recognised from my own upbringing in the Open Brethren. I felt it lacked the spark that would lift it from a dull memoir into something more emotionally engaging.
In The Days Of Rain: A Daughter, A Father, A Cult by Rebecca Stott is a beautifully written memoir. I love the author’s descriptions of the English countryside. They make me wish I could travel. The book is mostly about the author’s father. He was a Shakespearian actor, a gambling addict, a former prisoner, and a high-ranking member of a religious cult. This memoir is his daughter’s attempt to sort out his messy history in order to understand him better. I have mixed feelings about the book. When the author writes about her own experiences, it’s gripping. She was a paranoid child whose life revolved around the strict rules of a cult. Then a sex scandal caused the cult to fall apart, and her whole life suddenly changed. She didn’t have her church friends or her community anymore. She had to adapt quickly to a new world.
I like the stories about the author’s own life, but she discusses a lot of other things too. She talks about her ancestors. And she talks about movies and poetry. That’s where I struggled. The book occasionally gets dry or pretentious or navel gazing. I found myself zoning out and wanting to skip ahead. The descriptions are so good, though. It’s worth reading for those and the author's childhood experiences.
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“I was constantly watching—or listening—for Satan, hearing the tapping of his hooves on the cobblestones in the streets of Brighton, looking at the children in the primary school playground and imagining the scale of the wickedness in their homes.” – In The Days Of Rain
I like the stories about the author’s own life, but she discusses a lot of other things too. She talks about her ancestors. And she talks about movies and poetry. That’s where I struggled. The book occasionally gets dry or pretentious or navel gazing. I found myself zoning out and wanting to skip ahead. The descriptions are so good, though. It’s worth reading for those and the author's childhood experiences.
Do you like opinions, giveaways, and bookish nonsense?
I have a blog for that.