After the Fire by Will Hill || Book Review

I really enjoy reading books about cults. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t agree with what goes on inside them, but it’s always an eye-opener to find out what life is like on the inside and why people there live the way they do.

The truth isn’t pretty.

I read the book by Caroline Jessop, Escape, about her escape from the compound in Salt Lake City and it was heartbreaking to learn of what she and her kids had to live through, as well as everyone else that was in the compound. The reality is frightening.

This is my choice for November book of the month 2022.

DISCLAIMER: This review could contain possible spoilers based on my opinions. All opinions and views are my own.

Book review: After the Fire by Will Hill #bookreview #willhill #youngadultbooks #contemporarybooks #booktwt #bookaddict #booktwitter
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Originally published: 2017

Pages: 476
Format: Paperback

Plot from GoodReads:

The things I’ve seen are burned into me, like scars that refuse to fade.

Father John controls everything inside The Fence. And Father John likes rules. Especially about never talking to Outsiders. Because Father John knows the truth. He knows what is right, and what is wrong. He knows what is coming.

Moonbeam is starting to doubt, though. She’s starting to see the lies behind Father John’s words. She wants him to be found out.

What if the only way out of the darkness is to light a fire?

Thoughts:

The book starts off with a turmoil of events from the first page and you have no idea how it came to that.

It continues to unfold the story by jumping between two timelines, the one before the fire and the one after, as Moonbeam tells the story about her life in the compound she grew up in.

Some of the characters really stuck to me in the book and it was sad to hear of what happened to them as the book went along.

This story is kind of plot related, but the character development is ever present in the book as they fight against everything they have grown up to believe while still being tugged by their past to follow rules and believe the indoctrinations of their cult.

The sacrifice made by one of the characters was heartbreaking and when you get the whole picture towards the end of the book, it might bring on the waterworks.

The reality of living/growing up in a cult is complete control over everything said and done. From the brainwashing about the outside world and the ‘dangers’ posed to the brutal punishments given out for even the smallest rule breaking was hard to read about. Hard but necessarily to understand how unnatural that life is.

This book doesn’t take on religion but the way that religion is twisted by some to gain control and to misuse the power at their hands.

I finished this book in a short period of time as I needed to know the whole story, past and present, and find out what happened to the remaining characters in the book.