When the faith in her polygamist cult and its leader, who also happens to be her husband, turns to horror, Amaranth steals away with her heavily indoctrinated daughters and washes up on a farmhouse porch in Oklahoma. While I'd usually eat up a story about such a community for the puerile interest alone, I found this story a bit of a slog, perhaps due to the disheartening and frustrating nature of the escapees; three women so indoctrinated and ignorantly embedded in their culture that there is little room for any empathetic character development. And, ugh, enough emphasis on the many dirty and stained clothes and under-layers in which the ladies are buried! ... Oh, wait, might it be symbolism??? Ok, I get it, so, Mom, can you please launder the Secret Underwear already, and, by the way, you might also want to keep an eye on the daughter with the messianic complex who likes to play with matches as well! At the beginning of the book we see a mother and her two daughters leave their polygamous cult behind. Their car breaks down in Oklahoma where they meet Bradley a farmer whose wife had left him. Bradley introduces them to his father where both Amity and Sorrow keep him company. We also see how life was for the mother and daughters at the compound that they left and how they were treated. At first Bradley doesn't like the fact that the mother had left her husband behind until he finds out what kind of lifestyle that they left. In the book it is revealed that the oldest daughter was sexually molested by her father. The ending is disappointing but the mother discovers what real family is.
What do You think about Amity And Sorrow (2013)?
ughGood idea for a story that never seemed to materialize. Not my cup of tea.
—amber
Meh.Right in the middle, good but not what I was really expecting.RCS
—lhor
