You know, I just need to stop reading books with teenage protagonists. If they act all melodramatic and over-the-top like teenagers, I'm annoyed. If they act all "wise beyond their years" and say and do things teenagers never would, I'm annoyed. This book did a little bit of both, which -- surprise! -- made me annoyed.Overall, this book lacks complexity. There are 2 different scenes which are clunkily used as exposition, which frankly would have been better off in some sort of note in the back. FLDS cliches were crammed into all parts of the book, apparently just to show "this is the kind of stuff that goes on in FLDS churches." Ok, it does, but that doesn't mean every single one needed to be included in this book, regardless of the plot! And on top of that, the characters all lacked any real depth.Ultimately, I think what makes good characters, and therefore a good book, is when the author (or authors, in this case) have some sort of understanding of what makes the characters tick. Even if they are completely vile, unrepentant monsters, the author has to have some internal understanding and, weirdly, sense of connection with this character. That is NOT what you get from this book. The authors clearly have no real understanding of the inner workings any of their characters, so they are flat and have no real motivations. It's like the authors watched news reports and documentaries of "the things" that go on in these communities, and decided to cobble them together to make a book without actually ever connecting with or caring about the people they created. It was more like "This shit is weird. Let's write a book about it."This book had a very YA feel, with shallow characters, shallow emotions, and neat happy wrap-ups at the end with everything being better and everyone having closure la la la la la. Is it a YA book? Nobody's tagging it as a YA book. Too bad, I'm officially declaring it a YA book.I think this is one of those books that has a lot of good ratings and is popular because the TOPIC is so popular, not because the book is well written or has compelling characters or a nail-biting plot. People are just interested in polygamy, and anything having to do with polygamy will sell and excite interest.Oh, and way to not understand how psychiatrists work, and not understand what "psychosis" means. Overall I enjoyed this book, however I did not feel that sentiment until the very last chapter of the book. As a whole the book was enjoyable though at times the content was just too hard to take in. Several times I had to mentally block my own beliefs out just to make it to the end of the book. This book is certainly not for anyone who is close-minded to trying to understand another culture. In the end, I felt hopeful and found that I had developed an attachment to the two sisters, in that I wanted so desperately for them to get out of their situation.
What do You think about Ukryte żony (2012)?
This is a very engaging and interesting book!
—tinkabelle122196
I didn't want to put this book down!
—emillewinger
