LiterariLeigh

So many books, so little time. My "to read" list on Goodreads continues to grow (currently 547 titles). I realize it's most likely I won't get to read them all, but I love to have choices. Sometimes I browse through my list and a title I marked a year or two ago catches my eye - I think "Ooh, time to read that one!". Sometimes it's a book I've been waiting to see published.

I picked up one of my new titles a couple weeks ago, Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley. A debut novel, the book begins with a mother, Amaranth, driving her daughters away from their home. We learn that they were all part of a cultist religious compound, the father having fifty wives, the only education for the children is what they are told - no reading, radio, TV, etc. While Amaranth became close with several of her sister wives, her husband was changing from a devoted leader to a fanatic zealot.

Her daughters Amity and Sorrow know no other life, though Amity has a sense that there has been a serious wrongdoing. Sorrow becomes completely distraught and withdrawn at her separation from home and family. Neither is aware that their mother is trying to save them an unenlightened and dangerous life.

Told in varying chapters by Amaranth and Amity, it's rather scary to realize how indoctrinated they are, but it does make sense that they would do and believe what they've been told in such a narrow and controlled world. I would suggest this book if you liked reading Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer, or followed the TV series Big Love.