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A review by karagee
Thirty-Seven by Peter Stenson
3.0
I find cults intriguing and I'm often surprised by how few fiction books I can find focusing on the topic so I was initially pleased about finding Thirty Seven. The last book I read which claimed to be about survivors of a cult only used the cult as an afterthought that was never actually explained (because it was just a pretense for a substandard murder mystery). This one actually went into intense detail about the cult's appeal and the aftermath of its effect on a young survivor. On top of that, it's pretty well-written (I read an advance copy of this book but the grammar mistakes were pretty sparse) and engaging.
The narrative jumps around over the course of 3 years, showing the teenage protagonist's introduction to the cult, his time in it, his interactions with a therapist after, and his present day friendship with a lonely girl he finds common ground with. This book was all primed to be a 4-star book for me until it took a pessimistic turn about two thirds in.
I thought it still had plenty of chances to turn back and salvage a beautiful story about redemption and recovery through discovery of one's self but that's... not the direction the author wanted to go in. The last third or more of this book is an increasingly depressing sympathy-cringe that makes you feel an uncomfortable mix of pity and hatred for the pair.
I'm not one to claim that all books MUST have a happy ending. Sometimes that is just not the story the author wants to tell and I love the occasional downer ending but I feel like it has to have meant something and ultimately I feel like no one in this book learned anything of value and literally everyone was worse off for having experienced the events of the novel. For me, that pinged it down a star. The incredibly violent ending (complete with dog and child murder) didn't help much either.
The narrative jumps around over the course of 3 years, showing the teenage protagonist's introduction to the cult, his time in it, his interactions with a therapist after, and his present day friendship with a lonely girl he finds common ground with. This book was all primed to be a 4-star book for me until it took a pessimistic turn about two thirds in.
I thought it still had plenty of chances to turn back and salvage a beautiful story about redemption and recovery through discovery of one's self but that's... not the direction the author wanted to go in. The last third or more of this book is an increasingly depressing sympathy-cringe that makes you feel an uncomfortable mix of pity and hatred for the pair.
I'm not one to claim that all books MUST have a happy ending. Sometimes that is just not the story the author wants to tell and I love the occasional downer ending but I feel like it has to have meant something and ultimately I feel like no one in this book learned anything of value and literally everyone was worse off for having experienced the events of the novel. For me, that pinged it down a star. The incredibly violent ending (complete with dog and child murder) didn't help much either.