By Stephanie Oakes
Pages: 400
Date Finished: 8/30/17
Lo
ved It
Synopsis:
The Kevinian cult has taken everything from seventeen-year-old Minnow: twelve years of her life, her family, her ability to trust.
And when she rebelled, they took away her hands, too.
Now their Prophet has been murdered and their camp set aflame, and it’s clear that Minnow knows something—but she’s not talking. As she languishes in juvenile detention, she struggles to un-learn everything she has been taught to believe, adjusting to a life behind bars and recounting the events that led up to her incarceration. But when an FBI detective approaches her about making a deal, Minnow sees she can have the freedom she always dreamed of—if she’s willing to part with the terrible secrets of her past.
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly is a hard-hitting and hopeful story about the dangers of blind faith—and the power of having faith in oneself.
Review:
I made the mistake of reading a free sample of this book. After devouring the first few chapters I had to buy the book so I could keep reading. This book hooks you and then doesn’t let go.
Minnow is a character of contradictions, a survivor who has gone through hell and yet she’s innocent and completely ignorant of worldly things. As the story of Minnow unfolds it’s layers, told mostly through flashbacks, I was at times intrigued, horrified, mesmerized and disturbed. Minnow is a puzzle, what happened to her is a puzzle, but why it happened is pretty clear. The mad cult leader, it all comes back to him.
Like her narrative, Minnows mind is twisted. You can’t trust her, but you can’t help but want to trust her. You want her to tell her tale, to share with you the TRUTH behind it all, but you don’t know who Minnow can trust (including herself) and you really don’t want her story ending up in the wrong hands or worse being used against her.
It’s so hard to describe the book without giving away spoilers! (So I’m going to stop here.)
The one thing I’m going to be nit-picky about is the cover. For a book that starts off telling us it’s about a girl who had her hands cut off, it’s pretty weird to see those hands on the cover. It just doesn’t fit the story or the mood of the book.
Bottom Line:
Wow! Wow! Wow! Even for someone like myself who doesn’t usually love psychological thrillers this was a great read. Highly recommended!