Review: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes

Title: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly
Author: Stephanie Oakes
Publisher: Dial/Penguin
Release date: June 9th 2015

Rating: 4/5

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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.

I finished reading this book a week ago, but at the time I didn´t know how to rated it, because I had to think and assimilate the story and reread the ending. since it is not a closed ending, but an open ending with hope of  a better future.

The story begins with 17-year-old Minnow in the city and she had just committed a crime, for which she´s arrested and subsequently sent to Juvenal Detention Center. Minnow recently lost her hands and through her memories and the stories she tells her cellmate and the Doctor who works for the FBI, she´s revealing her story little by little, how she managed to escape and what happened night of the fire in her commune.

Minnow Bly was born in the city but when she was 5 years old, her father met the Prophet and shortly after she and her parents, the Prophet and more families went into the forest and created a commune in an inaccessible part of the forest, with the intention of never returning to civilization, since outside the commune the world is condemned and only those who live in the commune will be saved. So Minnow grew up with beliefs taught by the Prophet, she doesn´t know how to read because it isn´t necessary for women to know how to read, since their duty is to marry and have children, Minnow has many mothers since polygamous marriage is allowed and she has more than 15 siblings and she´s about to reach the age when God will called her to fulfill her mission of getting married and having children. But Minnow has trouble understanding or accepting the commandments of the Kevinian cult which is what ultimately gets her in trouble.

I think that with what I had the most problems with was the cultural shock, since the rules of worship could apply in some historical books, but it was the fact that it happened in modern day was what surprised me, when Minnow talked or remembered some teaching of the Prophet .

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly is a contemporary book with chilling and creepy moments where we see how humans can become monsters and sometimes the worst ones can be the ones you trust. But it also has its light moments and despite the strong and dark moments it ends with a good note, so in the end it does not feel too heavy. It´s a good book with a plot that keeps you interested through 400 pages.