This book was a very awkward read, but then what can you expect reading a book through the eyes of a 13 year old main character. I thought the book was really great and well done, but there were many parts where I felt the author was trying to trick me and then the stuff she said didn't actually make sense with the real outcome. Overall it was pretty good.

My older self is horrified. See, I grew up in a closed community. Not nearly as horrific as the one described in the book, but I'm in my mid-50s and realizing the damage created. Not just a fun "I escaped weirdness" or "but they really loved me" (and they DID, it was true), but s fundamental "otherness" my whole life.
I have a hard time, then, adhering to a hard line of "Truth". What if what I firmly believe and hold dear is as insane and deadly as the ones in this book? One doesn't recognize what has been normalized and absorbed, especially as children.
This is probably why I'm incredibly "lenient" about espousing MY beliefs and certainties as the capital T truth. I will not force my children to accept and normalize "otherness" that they don't choose themselves because (gasp) I might be as crazy as the folks in the book.
This might be as dangerous. Who knows? But I'm formed by my experiences like anyone else. And my result refuses to be dogmatic.

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