khylabevibin's review
3.0
This book has received good ratings so far so if I'm going to be honest, I'm a bit nervous to write my own. As I've probably said hundreds of times, I hate giving any sort of negative review. I'm alarmingly aware that not every book or writing style is going to be for me and I'm pretty sure this book is a good example.
Now the story line is definitely interesting. It follows Lindy James, a lesbian mom, being led into some sort of poly Christian cult after months of brainwashing and suffering from postpartum psychosis. As her wife, Quincy, strives to find and help her. The books gives us dive into both of their heads as they go through a tough time filled with unimaginable pain.
See? Interesting story line. However in my respectful opinion, it was followed by a lackluster execution.
The story picks up immediately from the first page with Lindy preparing to leave. Quincy notices her wife is acting strange after being so distracted by working double to afford a house they have set their eyes on. Quincy notices too late though as her wife is already in the process of being whisked away by her new Christian friends to an isolated religious community in Arizona.
There's a minor moment where Quincy takes legal matters in her own hands and fights for custody of the kids with the argument of her wife being unfit. This is where I started getting a bit less interested in this story. Not only does the judge instantly dismiss Quincy's concern but this case itself was pointless to the whole story. The pacing of it was unbelievably unrealistic as well. They ended up having joint custody and Lindy fleeing the state should've made her a fugitive but she wasn't really treated like one. (At least I think so, not too updated on American Law).
Instead the way the situation was treated was highly underwhelming. She basically kidnapped her two kids and I can't help but feel like the way Quincy and her friends/ colleagues dealt with this to be weird. This whole time Quincy still views Lindy as an angel and her lover. Now this could just be a character detail, maybe she was just so trusting of Lindy even though she had questions about her sanity, but that just does not make much sense to me. If my wife was telling me all that crap about the devil and not wanting our kids to live like that, I'd be more worried about the kids. Now I'm not saying she was just supposed to stop caring about Lindy but she let this whole situation go too easily.
It felt more like the author painting a fairytale of true unconditional love which in my opinion, was not the best move for the impact of this story. How am I supposed to feel for Quincy when she barely feels for herself? The love to me, felt forced.
I guess my ultimate problem with this story would be the pacing and just a tiny bit the writing. I felt like the writing did not exactly fit the mood. The pacing however was honestly a bigger mood killer though. There's a moment where Quincy is so stressed she passes out but we see nothing building up to that. I struggled so much to connect with all of these characters.
My three stars of content stands for three things. One, the storyline, as I said it was very interesting, the whole religious cult aspect specifically. Two, the depth to that religious cult storyline. Three, the mental health aspect, specifically Lindy's.
I found the inclusion of postpartum psychosis to be an admirable one. It is something that isn't really talked about because it's assumed to be rare when in reality its just overlooked. As much as many things having to deal with women. So I did enjoy that.
But all in all, I did not enjoy this book. I will leave it to you to decide if you wanna read. Perhaps read other reviews to get other views.
I received an ARC from Netgalley in return for a honest review
Now the story line is definitely interesting. It follows Lindy James, a lesbian mom, being led into some sort of poly Christian cult after months of brainwashing and suffering from postpartum psychosis. As her wife, Quincy, strives to find and help her. The books gives us dive into both of their heads as they go through a tough time filled with unimaginable pain.
See? Interesting story line. However in my respectful opinion, it was followed by a lackluster execution.
The story picks up immediately from the first page with Lindy preparing to leave. Quincy notices her wife is acting strange after being so distracted by working double to afford a house they have set their eyes on. Quincy notices too late though as her wife is already in the process of being whisked away by her new Christian friends to an isolated religious community in Arizona.
There's a minor moment where Quincy takes legal matters in her own hands and fights for custody of the kids with the argument of her wife being unfit. This is where I started getting a bit less interested in this story. Not only does the judge instantly dismiss Quincy's concern but this case itself was pointless to the whole story. The pacing of it was unbelievably unrealistic as well. They ended up having joint custody and Lindy fleeing the state should've made her a fugitive but she wasn't really treated like one. (At least I think so, not too updated on American Law).
Instead the way the situation was treated was highly underwhelming. She basically kidnapped her two kids and I can't help but feel like the way Quincy and her friends/ colleagues dealt with this to be weird. This whole time Quincy still views Lindy as an angel and her lover. Now this could just be a character detail, maybe she was just so trusting of Lindy even though she had questions about her sanity, but that just does not make much sense to me. If my wife was telling me all that crap about the devil and not wanting our kids to live like that, I'd be more worried about the kids. Now I'm not saying she was just supposed to stop caring about Lindy but she let this whole situation go too easily.
It felt more like the author painting a fairytale of true unconditional love which in my opinion, was not the best move for the impact of this story. How am I supposed to feel for Quincy when she barely feels for herself? The love to me, felt forced.
I guess my ultimate problem with this story would be the pacing and just a tiny bit the writing. I felt like the writing did not exactly fit the mood. The pacing however was honestly a bigger mood killer though. There's a moment where Quincy is so stressed she passes out but we see nothing building up to that. I struggled so much to connect with all of these characters.
My three stars of content stands for three things. One, the storyline, as I said it was very interesting, the whole religious cult aspect specifically. Two, the depth to that religious cult storyline. Three, the mental health aspect, specifically Lindy's.
I found the inclusion of postpartum psychosis to be an admirable one. It is something that isn't really talked about because it's assumed to be rare when in reality its just overlooked. As much as many things having to deal with women. So I did enjoy that.
But all in all, I did not enjoy this book. I will leave it to you to decide if you wanna read. Perhaps read other reviews to get other views.
I received an ARC from Netgalley in return for a honest review
khieeae's review
3.0
This book has received good ratings so far so if I'm going to be honest, I'm a bit nervous to write my own. As I've probably said hundreds of times, I hate giving any sort of negative review. I'm alarmingly aware that not every book or writing style is going to be for me and I'm pretty sure this book is a good example.
Now the story line is definitely interesting. It follows Lindy James, a lesbian mom, being led into some sort of poly Christian cult after months of brainwashing and suffering from postpartum psychosis. As her wife, Quincy, strives to find and help her. The books gives us dive into both of their heads as they go through a tough time filled with unimaginable pain.
See? Interesting story line. However in my respectful opinion, it was followed by a lackluster execution.
The story picks up immediately from the first page with Lindy preparing to leave. Quincy notices her wife is acting strange after being so distracted by working double to afford a house they have set their eyes on. Quincy notices too late though as her wife is already in the process of being whisked away by her new Christian friends to an isolated religious community in Arizona.
There's a minor moment where Quincy takes legal matters in her own hands and fights for custody of the kids with the argument of her wife being unfit. This is where I started getting a bit less interested in this story. Not only does the judge instantly dismiss Quincy's concern but this case itself was pointless to the whole story. The pacing of it was unbelievably unrealistic as well. They ended up having joint custody and Lindy fleeing the state should've made her a fugitive but she wasn't really treated like one. (At least I think so, not too updated on American Law).
Instead the way the situation was treated was highly underwhelming. She basically kidnapped her two kids and I can't help but feel like the way Quincy and her friends/ colleagues dealt with this to be weird. This whole time Quincy still views Lindy as an angel and her lover. Now this could just be a character detail, maybe she was just so trusting of Lindy even though she had questions about her sanity, but that just does not make much sense to me. If my wife was telling me all that crap about the devil and not wanting our kids to live like that, I'd be more worried about the kids. Now I'm not saying she was just supposed to stop caring about Lindy but she let this whole situation go too easily.
It felt more like the author painting a fairytale of true unconditional love which in my opinion, was not the best move for the impact of this story. How am I supposed to feel for Quincy when she barely feels for herself? The love to me, felt forced.
I guess my ultimate problem with this story would be the pacing and just a tiny bit the writing. I felt like the writing did not exactly fit the mood. The pacing however was honestly a bigger mood killer though. There's a moment where Quincy is so stressed she passes out but we see nothing building up to that. I struggled so much to connect with all of these characters.
My three stars of content stands for three things. One, the storyline, as I said it was very interesting, the whole religious cult aspect specifically. Two, the depth to that religious cult storyline. Three, the mental health aspect, specifically Lindy's.
I found the inclusion of postpartum psychosis to be an admirable one. It is something that isn't really talked about because it's assumed to be rare when in reality its just overlooked. As much as many things having to deal with women. So I did enjoy that.
But all in all, I did not enjoy this book. I will leave it to you to decide if you wanna read. Perhaps read other reviews to get other views.
I received an ARC from Netgalley in return for a honest review
Now the story line is definitely interesting. It follows Lindy James, a lesbian mom, being led into some sort of poly Christian cult after months of brainwashing and suffering from postpartum psychosis. As her wife, Quincy, strives to find and help her. The books gives us dive into both of their heads as they go through a tough time filled with unimaginable pain.
See? Interesting story line. However in my respectful opinion, it was followed by a lackluster execution.
The story picks up immediately from the first page with Lindy preparing to leave. Quincy notices her wife is acting strange after being so distracted by working double to afford a house they have set their eyes on. Quincy notices too late though as her wife is already in the process of being whisked away by her new Christian friends to an isolated religious community in Arizona.
There's a minor moment where Quincy takes legal matters in her own hands and fights for custody of the kids with the argument of her wife being unfit. This is where I started getting a bit less interested in this story. Not only does the judge instantly dismiss Quincy's concern but this case itself was pointless to the whole story. The pacing of it was unbelievably unrealistic as well. They ended up having joint custody and Lindy fleeing the state should've made her a fugitive but she wasn't really treated like one. (At least I think so, not too updated on American Law).
Instead the way the situation was treated was highly underwhelming. She basically kidnapped her two kids and I can't help but feel like the way Quincy and her friends/ colleagues dealt with this to be weird. This whole time Quincy still views Lindy as an angel and her lover. Now this could just be a character detail, maybe she was just so trusting of Lindy even though she had questions about her sanity, but that just does not make much sense to me. If my wife was telling me all that crap about the devil and not wanting our kids to live like that, I'd be more worried about the kids. Now I'm not saying she was just supposed to stop caring about Lindy but she let this whole situation go too easily.
It felt more like the author painting a fairytale of true unconditional love which in my opinion, was not the best move for the impact of this story. How am I supposed to feel for Quincy when she barely feels for herself? The love to me, felt forced.
I guess my ultimate problem with this story would be the pacing and just a tiny bit the writing. I felt like the writing did not exactly fit the mood. The pacing however was honestly a bigger mood killer though. There's a moment where Quincy is so stressed she passes out but we see nothing building up to that. I struggled so much to connect with all of these characters.
My three stars of content stands for three things. One, the storyline, as I said it was very interesting, the whole religious cult aspect specifically. Two, the depth to that religious cult storyline. Three, the mental health aspect, specifically Lindy's.
I found the inclusion of postpartum psychosis to be an admirable one. It is something that isn't really talked about because it's assumed to be rare when in reality its just overlooked. As much as many things having to deal with women. So I did enjoy that.
But all in all, I did not enjoy this book. I will leave it to you to decide if you wanna read. Perhaps read other reviews to get other views.
I received an ARC from Netgalley in return for a honest review
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