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klichtle's review
2.0
It kept me turning the pages but it was WAAAY too dramatic! Every possible thing that could have happened did and after a while it just seemed completely ridiculous!
marryallthepeople's review
5.0
Man I enjoyed this book! [Pity about the awful cover my copy had!] It was a deep subject but with a easy-to-understand writing style. It's not a literary masterpiece but it pulled at the heartstrings and I read it in only a couple of hours. A tad predictable at the end, but I'm okay with that!!
Now I want to read a bunch more books on the subject of multiple marriages.
Thanks GoodReads for the recommendation!
Now I want to read a bunch more books on the subject of multiple marriages.
Thanks GoodReads for the recommendation!
mwillmon's review
4.0
4 1/2 really, I loved it! I was worried it was going to be mainly about the teenage love, etc without being realistic but as I read on it has SO much more depth than I thought it would have at the beginning. GREAT book I recommend EVERYONE to read it. Never gotten a glimpse inside polygamist lift, it is truly awful.
bethreadsandnaps's review
3.0
I am fascinated by polygamy, so this was a "must read" for me.
Half-sisters Rachel and Sara live in the same household. Sara is the more cynical, slightly younger sister. Rachel is very beautiful but very naive. Rachel falls in love with Luke but, after a lot of denial, she realizes that she is to become the wife of the prophet. The sisters, in conjunction with a male friend of Sara's, flee the town.
It is obvious that the authors (yes, there are two authors) have lived through something like this because there is very much a slant that wise-for-her-age Sara knows that fundamental Mormonism isn't right. So do male friends Irvin and Luke. The only teenager who doesn't realize what's going on is naive, beautiful Rachel.
The obvious bias came through in the book. The characters seemed either all good or all bad. I kind of thought Sara belonged with Luke. Rachel didn't seem to have many redeeming characteristics other than being beautiful and naive. Sara seemed a little more complex and more of a "match" for Luke.
Half-sisters Rachel and Sara live in the same household. Sara is the more cynical, slightly younger sister. Rachel is very beautiful but very naive. Rachel falls in love with Luke but, after a lot of denial, she realizes that she is to become the wife of the prophet. The sisters, in conjunction with a male friend of Sara's, flee the town.
It is obvious that the authors (yes, there are two authors) have lived through something like this because there is very much a slant that wise-for-her-age Sara knows that fundamental Mormonism isn't right. So do male friends Irvin and Luke. The only teenager who doesn't realize what's going on is naive, beautiful Rachel.
The obvious bias came through in the book. The characters seemed either all good or all bad. I kind of thought Sara belonged with Luke. Rachel didn't seem to have many redeeming characteristics other than being beautiful and naive. Sara seemed a little more complex and more of a "match" for Luke.
literallykristen's review
2.0
I felt like the main characters in this book were not believable and the romance angle was completely over-the-top. The ending also bothered me because it was just too easy...too neat and tidy. That doesn't ring true to me either. Although the idea behind the book was intriguing, I felt like the execution was off.
desikamil's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual assault
bookscatsyarn's review
1.0
What the heck is wrong with me? This book is badly written and essentially cribbed from polygamist memoirs with an unrealistically happy ending with some miracle cures thrown in. So why did I stay up so late reading it?
karschmidtholloway's review
2.0
I felt like there was a lot of sensationalism in the plot. Like it wasn't just that there was a baby with a birth defect because there's a lot of close relatives having children, it had to be a baby whose insides were coming out, and the father walks into the birthing room with a shovel and a garbage bag. And it wasn't just that marriages were political exchanges, but the girl has a huge panic attack when she overhears two men basically trading daughters.
The characters thought processes, especially the description of the process of deconversion, weren't logical. Their recognition and distinction of what was religious and what was general human knowledge doesn't make sense for teenagers who grew up in an insular community. It made it hard to relate to them when they seemed to have knowledge they couldn't have or all-too-convenient epiphanies.
As a method of bringing light to the issue of polygamy as practiced by religious fundamentalists in the American west, I think it did a decent job of hitting all the "main points" of how the practice leads to illness, abuse, and poverty. However, the poor characterization and repeated use of stereotypes and tropes makes it hard to sympathize with the protagonists. I thought the emphasis on the love story between Luke and Rachel cheapened the weight of the girls' other struggles.
The characters thought processes, especially the description of the process of deconversion, weren't logical. Their recognition and distinction of what was religious and what was general human knowledge doesn't make sense for teenagers who grew up in an insular community. It made it hard to relate to them when they seemed to have knowledge they couldn't have or all-too-convenient epiphanies.
As a method of bringing light to the issue of polygamy as practiced by religious fundamentalists in the American west, I think it did a decent job of hitting all the "main points" of how the practice leads to illness, abuse, and poverty. However, the poor characterization and repeated use of stereotypes and tropes makes it hard to sympathize with the protagonists. I thought the emphasis on the love story between Luke and Rachel cheapened the weight of the girls' other struggles.
carrolk3's review
3.0
While this isn't a piece of great literature, it certainly is a very interesting look into fundamentalist Mormons and the issues relating to their beliefs including the whole polygamy situation. There are certainly some very unpleasant circumstances the 2 teenage young women face in this story. While it is fiction, it uncovers some of the serious issues related to the fundamentalists sects. Not a happy read but definitely edifying...