A review by mallorypen
Goodbye Paradise by Sarina Bowen

challenging dark emotional hopeful slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

… What an odd experience. The premise sounded interesting - escaping a cult! Whoo! - and yet, swathes of the book was slice-of-life, going about one’s business finding a job, babysitting or making food outside of the cult. There was a lengthy section on learning how to scramble eggs … in between weirdly intense sex scenes where virginal characters behaved like porn stars, of course. 

And the plot wiggle where Caleb was going to marry Miriam because she didn’t choose to leave with him when they escaped? And him forgetting he had asked her to escape with him and Josh in the first place?

Honestly, this felt like the author had the first scenes of living and escaping from the cult thought out in detail, and then needed to string plot points along to round out a novel after that.

Rough. But free!
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