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books

Cult Memoirs

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After listening to Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear, I decided to dig into these two memoirs – one about Scientology, one about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). I had begun Jessop’s Escape in print several years ago but never finished. (In my
early 20s I often checked out lots of interesting nonfiction from the
library and then never read it.) I have an interest in first-person
accounts of fringe religions/cults (like many of us do, I’m sure).
Raised without a religion, I’ve always been intrigued by what people
believe and why they believe it, as well as where that line between a
religion and a cult actually lies. 

Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill with Lisa Pulitzer
Jenna Miscavige Hill is the niece of David Miscavige and was born into Scientology, trained from a young age to join the Sea Org. She fled Scientology in her early 20s and wrote this book about her experiences growing up in the religion. Much of what she discusses is covered in Wright’s book, but getting it from a first person point of view is valuable.

Although Hill was related to the most powerful man in the religion, this was a mixed blessing. At times it seemed she was given preferential treatment (allowed to visit her mother and stay in a relatively nice hotel while others in the Sea Org were not); at others, it seemed she was blamed for it (punished for asking for something she had always gotten before, not realizing it wasn’t standard). What struck me most about Hill’s story was the manipulation and mind games played by Scientologists with power. Frequently, Hill was called in for “security checks” that lasted hours. She was made to answer personal questions and often felt like she was being disciplined for an unknown infraction. Sometimes she’d discover that it was her parents who had misbehaved; often the reasons remained unknown. Particularly startling are Hill’s statements as to how infrequently she saw her parents (half a dozen times in as many years) and how little supervision is exercised over young children. For example, one of Jenna’s jobs as a pre-teen was to administer medical care to all the other children in training for the Sea Org. There was no adult back-up.

The “harrowing” part of the subtitle is a little misleading when compared with Carolyn Jessop’s account of her escape from the FLDS (below). This is partly due to Hill’s writing, which is simplistic and very event-based. She describes her feelings, but mostly this is a straightforward account of what happened, and then what happened next. The events themselves are interesting enough, but it’s not among the most riveting memoirs I’ve read. (Interestingly, neither of these two memoirs were narrated by their authors.)

Escape by Carolyn Jessop

Jessop’s account of her life in the FLDS and her escape at age 35 after over a decade of marriage with a man over 30 years her senior is riveting and horrifying, just as the accounts of Scientology are. She had eight kids at the time of her escape, including one who was profoundly disabled. She managed to escape with all of them and received full custody of them. She tells of rampant abuse, both physical and psychological. I expected that her husband would be horrible, and he was, going so far as to deny life-saving medical care to one of Carolyn’s children in order to punish her. What I didn’t expect was just how horrible her “sister wives” were as well. One of the wives was clearly the dominant one in her husband’s affections and used that power to manipulate and harm the other wives and their children. It ranged from little things, like not allowing the other wives time to use the washer and dryer, to more extreme things like preventing enough money to be given for the purchase of food.

In some ways, members of the FLDS are harder to understand than Scientologists – perhaps because of the way they dress. At first glance, Scientology doesn’t seem harmful as much as it seems just weird and a place for gullible people to get fleeced of all their money. The FLDS is definitely more blatantly awful, particularly for women (but not only for them).

As memoirs go, Escape is better-written than Hill’s Beyond Belief. The people in Jessop’s story have personality and depth, even those who were sometimes cruel to her. She delves deep into her reasons for believing and staying in the FLDS as long as she did. While both Hill and Jessop were born into their respective religions, the FLDS doesn’t really accept newcomers as Scientology goes. The FLDS needs to get them from birth and keep them isolated, and that’s exactly what happened with Jessop. Unlike Scientology, there doesn’t seem to be much to appeal to someone raised outside the FLDS. Even as she came to realize that her husband and those in power were not good people, Jessop believed in her religion. This creates sympathy for her daughter, Betty, who returned to the FLDS when she turned 18.

Next on my list: Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven.

Both books borrowed from my local library.

Graphic Novel Roundup

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Fables vol. 20: Camelot by Bill Willingham
I feel like the shine has worn off the Fables story somewhat. After the main story with the Adversary was resolved, new antagonist Mister Dark carried the Fables crew through several more successful issues. But since the defeat of Mister Dark, the series has been floundering. In volume 19, Willingham killed off Bigby and left Snow White trapped in a castle. This volume does precious little to move that along (Snow White isn’t seen except in flashbacks). Fables characters who die aren’t ever dead permanently, so there’s some spellcasting on the part of the other Fables to bring him back, but I can’t say I was terribly interested. The Camelot of the title references Rose Red’s wish to help rebuild by rebooting the Camelot concept – you know, because it worked so well last time. For a reader who was obsessed with Arthurian legend as a teen, this held surprisingly little interest for me. Not much seemed to happen – a few subplots but nothing terribly exciting – and I’m still annoyed at what was done to Snow in volume 19 anyway. Both volumes 19 and 20 seem to undo a lot of the character growth done in previous issues, and certain parts of 20 hint at even further undoing in future installments.

The art is, as always, gorgeous, remaining one of my favorites among comics. The cover art in particular is stunning, whether it’s James Jean in previous volumes or Daniel Dos Santos on this one. Fables has a set end date with collected volume 22 later this year. Fables as its worst is still better than a lot of the other stuff out there (and this volume isn’t bad per se), so I’m sure I’ll keep reading until the end. I hope it can go out on a high note. We’ll see.

Gotham Academy by Becky Cloonan (issues 1-6)
This relatively new comic is about Gotham Academy (bet you didn’t see that coming), a prep school for the elite kids of Gotham. It differs from a lot of other comics focused on Gotham because the characters most people know are only peripheral (Bruce Wayne is a benefactor of the school and drops by occasionally, but it’s only a cameo). The book’s main characters are the school’s students, mainly Olive, who has a hole in her memory and whose mother is in an institution; and Maps, a younger kid obsessed with maps (hence the nickname) who becomes Olive’s sidekick.

Strange things go on in the school and Olive, Maps, and a group of other quirky kids and teens investigate. Some of the things have to do with Olive and her inability to remember parts of her past, and this storyline makes up the main plot of the first six issues. This is a fun comic with a lot of humor and great Easter eggs for DC readers, though it’s also perfectly accessible to people who haven’t read much (or any) DC – like myself. It was recommended to me by someone with more knowledge of comics who also knows my love of heist stories and mysteries featuring teenagers (my boyfriend), and his recommendation was spot on. The art is clear, detailed, and moody, making significant use of light and shadow, perfect for a mysterious old school with secrets in its bones. Issues 1-6 comprise the first collected volume, which will be published June 17. I’d easily recommend it for comics-loving tweens and teens.

Personal copies.

Three Quick Reviews + a free TLA Program

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I don’t do a whole lot of programming in my current position, but I’m happy to say that I’ll be bringing three YA authors to my library next week while they’re in town for TLA. If you’re in town too, won’t you consider stopping by? We can say hi and you can watch me moderate a fun panel on writing for teens with three talented authors. There will be discussion, open Q&A, signings, giveaways, and you can even snap a photo of yourself and the authors in our iGeek photobooth.

In preparation for their visit, I read a few of their books. Since they’re Harlequin Teen authors, all of their books have some element of romance (which I am absolutely there for), but they’re wildly different from each other regardless. We’re giving away a copy of each of the three books below (two of which are advance reader copies) plus a few more surprises.

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter
As longtime readers may know, I’m a sucker for fairy tale and classic story retellings. This is a sort of Alice in Wonderland with zombies, where the zombies can only be seen by some people – but they’re no less terrifying for it. Ali’s father is paranoid and won’t let his family be outside after the sun sets. He says he sees monsters, but no one else can see them, and Ali secretly believes he is mentally ill. Ali convinces her father to let them all go see her little sister’s dance recital, even though it will end after dark, and everything seems to be going OK. Until the trip back. Ali’s dad sees something, freaks out, and the car flips. Her entire family is killed, not necessarily in the crash itself, but by something…else. Soon after, Alice starts to see the monsters, too.

Her family’s death is revealed in the blurb, but I hadn’t read it, so when it happened, it was a huge punch to the gut. Showalter knows how to make her readers hurt. But this is also a fun story, with lots of zombie hunting and, of course, a sizzling romance. When Ali moves in with her grandparents after the accident, she starts at a new school, and she ends up locking eyes with a resident “bad boy,” so-called because he is always skipping school and getting into fights – though none of the fights ever seem to happen on campus. It turns out he’s part of a group of teenagers who fight the zombies, and Ali gets caught up in their mission. Showalter is well-known for writing adult paranormal romances and it shows in her teen books.

The parallels with the Alice in Wonderland stories are not explicit, and this is not a retelling per se. Instead, there are clever little homages, like a cloud that resembles a rabbit and fanciful chapter titles like “Down the Zombie Hole” and “What Bloody Bloody Nonsense!” This is a good pick for teens who still crave zombie stories but are ready for something a little different.

Nowhere But Here by Katie McGarry (publishes May 26, 2015)
McGarry is known for writing high-appeal contemporary romances for teens, and her latest – the first in a new series about a motorcycle club – is sure to be popular. Contemporary romances aren’t usually my thing, but I quite liked this story about family, loyalty, and the prejudices we all carry about ways of life we don’t understand. Emily is sent to stay the summer with her biological father, a member of a motorcycle club and a man whom she believes has no interest in parenting her. There she gets to know her extended family and begins to fall for Oz, the son of the club’s leader whose dream is to follow in his father’s footsteps. She also uncovers secrets of her family’s past and learns that her mother’s story about why they left her father doesn’t necessarily line up with the truth. Lies on both sides of her family create grave danger for Emily.

This is a long book, but  the pages move quickly, thanks in part to short chapters that alternate between Emily and Oz’s points of view (emblematic of McGarry’s writing style). The romance incorporates a lot of common tropes (dislike and physical attraction at first sight, slowly giving away to real affection, a “bad” boy and a “good” girl, long-hidden secrets), but it also feels very genuine and age-appropriate. Emily and Oz fall in love like teens do, and McGarry’s characters don’t assume it will be forever – which doesn’t make it any less real. The romance combined with the secrets in Emily’s family’s past make for a multilayered book with a lot of threads to unravel.

The press release stated that McGarry did some hands-on research for the book by spending time with an actual motorcycle club, and it shows. I can’t say I have any firsthand experience, but McGarry’s story is immersive and she turns characters that could have been stereotypes into real people with strengths and flaws. Highly recommended for contemporary romance fans or any reader interested in modern ways of life outside the mainstream.
 

Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid (publishes August 4, 2015)
When they were freshmen, Dave and Julia made a list of all the stereotypical high school things they’d never do: go to a beer party, dye their hair an unnatural color, hook up with a teacher, go on a road trip, fall in love with your best friend. A few years later, with graduation on the horizon, they decide to turn their list of Nevers into a To Do List. Unbeknownst to Julia, Dave has already checked one item off the list: he’s hopelessly in love with Julia.

Alsaid’s second YA book leads with its gimmick, but it doesn’t take the trajectory you’d expect – at least not for long. Readers will enjoy watching the two teens check items off the list, from the relatively innocuous (dying their hair, which turns out terribly for Dave, who chose green), to the much more serious (hook up with a teacher, which Julia takes to with gusto). This hooking up with a teacher storyline is played for laughs and as an adult I was horrified by it, but teens will probably just think it’s funny like Julia and Dave do. (This part in particular made me feel old.) The first part of the book is told from Dave’s perspective and the middle part from Julia’s; Alsaid is more successful with Dave than Julia, though he manages to get real pathos out of both points of view. I was pleased that the story surprised me in the end, and I felt real sadness but also satisfaction at how everything turned out. This is a good pick for fans of lighter contemporary YA.

Romance Roundup

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Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare
I read a Tessa Dare book a couple of years ago and was underwhelmed. But I keep seeing her on lists of favorites, so I decided I’d give her another try. I’m glad I did. Any Duchess Will Do is funny, swoony, and narrated quite well by Eva Kaminsky, who nails both the upper-crust English voice of the hero (a duke) and the lower-class English voice of the heroine (a serving girl). It’s a re-telling of Pygmalion/My Fair Lady, in a way: the duke claims he will not get married, his mother tells him he must, he picks out a serving girl to annoy her, the mother says “game on” and decides to turn the serving girl into a duchess, hoping her son will then marry her.

The duke, Griffin, is kind of a jerk, but not in an “I’m going to go out of my way to make you feel awful” way. It’s more of an “I’m just concerned with myself and only myself” way. He makes an appearance in a previous book in the series, where he comes off rather badly. He does better for himself here. I doubted Dare’s ability to make me see him sympathetically, but she does a good job. Pauline, the serving girl, is a vastly more interesting character though. She has aspirations to start a library, stocked with naughty books for the ladies of her town to read, and she agrees to go through duchess training because Griffin has agreed to pay her to do a bad job and help get his mother off his back. The money he promises her will start the library. The pairing is a little different from most romances (where the woman is usually high-born), making this a refreshing read.

Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn
I’ve read two of the other books in Quinn’s Smythe-Smith quartet, which share a universe with her much-beloved Bridgerton series. I didn’t really love them. They weren’t terrible, but their leads didn’t have much chemistry, the stakes felt ridiculous, and there wasn’t much personality to them – surprising to me, since Quinn’s books are usually loaded with personality. That’s what makes her so hugely popular.

Just Like Heaven, narrated by Rosalyn Landor, is actually pretty good. It’s the first book in the series (I read romance series out of order since there’s really no spoiling anything here) and it’s a sweet one. It doesn’t put its characters through the wringer. The hero isn’t particularly tortured and the heroine not particularly self-doubting or put upon by others. They love their families and have been friends for years. They actually get together rather easily, compared to most romances I’ve read lately. If this sounds a little boring, that’s because it sort of is. It’s not Quinn’s best work, but coming off of the other two disappointing books, it was nice to get a solid one. And there’s always room for the sweet stuff in historical romance. We don’t need all Tragic Heroes all the time.

The Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas
My previous experiences with Sherry Thomas have all been with her YA books, which are excellent. This was my first historical romance by her and I’m so sad my library doesn’t own anything else of hers on audio. Corrie James narrates this one, and she does an excellent job – but it’s Thomas’ writing that carries it.

The book features a hero whose parents modeled a loveless, manipulative marriage and a heroine who must marry well in order to support her impoverished family. Neither is looking for love, and when they marry each other, they don’t expect to find it. I’m not normally a fan of romances where marriage happens before deep affection or love, but this one works really well. Thomas’ writing is sharp, her portraits of these two flawed characters well-done. The exchanges between the two leads are witty, like the best banter from the Bridgerton books, but with a darker edge. I thoroughly believed in their attraction at the outset and their love at the end. There’s no real “hook” to this story plot-wise that sets it apart from others; it’s the execution that makes it shine.

Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed

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Naila is a first-generation American, the daughter of conservative Pakistani immigrants. Her parents allow her a fair amount of freedom, they think: she can choose her friends and what she studies in college and what her career will be, but boys are off-limits. They will choose her husband.

But Naila has fallen in love with a classmate, Saif, a boy of whom she knows her parents will disapprove. When they find out, they are disappointed, angry, outraged. They decide to visit Pakistan over the summer, ostensibly to help Naila learn about her culture and her heritage. Naila actually enjoys her time there, getting to know family she has never met and a place she’s never been. But her parents keep delaying their return to the United States, and Naila eventually learns the reason for the frequent visits from families with young sons: her parents intend to marry her off, and Naila will not have a choice in the matter.

This is a nail-biter of a book. It’s under 300 pages with relatively large text and short chapters. Naila’s knowledge of her impending forced marriage comes rather late in the book, but it’s something the reader has known all along (provided they read the jacket flap). I think this actually heightens the tension, allowing us to keep our eyes peeled for clues and hoping against hope that Naila will figure it out soon enough. She doesn’t. Her escape attempts are harrowing. Saeed is very good at getting us inside Naila’s head, letting us see just how terrifying it is to be alone, in a country you know very little about, where no one seems to wish you well. Where your own family treats you as less than a person.

The following paragraph is somewhat of a spoiler, but I think it’s important to discuss in my review, so you can feel free to skip to the next paragraph if you want to go in relatively blind. Once Naila’s marriage actually happens, the book takes a turn into some very dark territory. She’s deposited on her new family’s doorstep, and now lives with him and her mother-in-law plus two sisters-in-law. None of them are sympathetic to her. None of them care that she didn’t want this marriage. None of them even think to ask. (“Life is full of sadness. It’s part of being a woman. Our lives are lived for the sake of others. Our happiness is never factored in,” one of her new sisters-in-law tells her.) Her mother-in-law has no patience with Naila’s sadness and treats her cruelly. Her husband rapes her. She becomes pregnant. She has no passport and no visa and no method of transportation. Her immediate family has returned to America. She becomes resigned to her new life. It’s hard to read about, but it’s honest and wouldn’t have been a believable part of the story otherwise.

Despite the book’s brevity, Saeed packs a lot into it. Her writing style is simple, but it works for Naila’s story and the voice is authentic. Her descriptions of Pakistan, of the markets and the food and the buses and the packed house with visiting aunts and cousins, sprinkled with Urdu words, paint a vivid picture. It’s not difficult to see why Naila falls in love with the place and with her extended family.

Saeed’s own experience with a happy, arranged marriage (not a forced marriage, as Naila’s is) adds interest to the novel. Along with Saeed’s deft descriptions of Pakistan and the people not directly involved in Naila’s marriage, it helps prevent the book from being an indictment of Pakistani culture for non-Pakistani readers (not necessarily the most vital thing, but important when providing windows to young readers). It’s also important to note that arranged marriages (by choice or forced) happen in many cultures, including Western ones, which is something Saeed addresses in her author’s note.

Written in the Stars is a debut novel and it’s not perfectly polished. Some transitions happen too quickly or seem awkward, and the ending is rushed. Despite the imperfections, this is a heck of a book, one that I read in a single sitting and that should have high appeal to teens. I think the concept sells itself, particularly when I consider that it’s written like a thriller but actually happens to teenage girls (not the case with a lot of thrillers). It’s fascinating, intense, horrifying, and ultimately hopeful – a novel packed with love and a great deal of nuance. Definitely worth a read.

Written in the Stars will be published March 24. I received a finished copy from the publisher.