Review: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes

What: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes

Who: HarperCollins Publishers Australia

When: June 22nd 2015

How: A copy of this novel was provided by Harper Collins Australia for review.

The Kevinian cult has taken everything from seventeen-year-old Minnow: twelve years of her life, her family, and her ability to trust.

And when Minnow rebelled, they took away her hands, too.

Now the Kevinian Prophet has been murdered and the camp set aflame and it’s clear Minnow knows something. But she’s not talking. As she adjusts to a life behind bars in juvenile detention, Minnow struggles to make sense of all she has been taught to believe, particularly as she dwells on 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 is willing to part with the terrible secrets of her past.

Powerful and compelling. this remarkable and brave debut novel reveals the terrible dangers of blind faith. And the importance of having faith in yourself.

I didn’t love it. There, I said. There, you know. I didn’t love The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly. Why? Three reasons.

The first is that Minnow was extremely hard to connect to. And connection doesn’t always mean knowing the feelings of what a person has been through, or what their life has involved. I didn’t need to have been in a horrible cult and had my hands cut off to feel a connection to Minnow. But even so, I didn’t.

She was so very … disconnected. She recited her story, and what was happening to her in a very stilted kind of way, that elicited little no emotion from me. Which is kind of a big feat because I am an emotional reader. And the fact that I really didn’t feel anything for Minnow left me more than a little disappointed.

The second is her attitude change. It was extremely unpredicted and seemed to come out of nowhere. Specifically, I am talking about her attitude towards her boy, Jude. In the beginning of the novel, she talks about the pain of losing him, and how much she loves him. I mean, she wears a tattered shirt for days (or even perhaps weeks) without taking it off because it belonged to him.

And then suddenly she’s indifferent towards him, and I did not see any discernible reason as to why. Feelings don’t just randomly change, so I would have liked to have some more explanation or exploration of why Minnow’s feelings towards Jude changed so suddenly and drastically.

The third and final reason is the ending. God, how I despise open endings, and this was about as open as they come. I felt a little gypped, if I am completely honest. I had read several hundred pages of this girl’s journey, only to have no idea how it turned out after all.

Okay scrap the numbered reasons, because there are more than three things that annoyed me.

Another was the fact that when Minnow was introduced to her cellmate, the guard was pretty much: she’s a bitch and she hates everyone. And then suddenly Minnow and Angel (the cellmate) are best friends, and Angel is protective of Minnow, and does super nice things for her. I was side eyeing the shit outta that relationship the entire time I read the book.

Minnow was raised amongst hellish violence. I mean she had her hands cut off for crying out loud. And then the minute she escapes from the cult – which is presumably because she doesn’t want that life – she nearly kills a boy by bashing him to the point of death. Uhm. Okay. So you’re against the violence, and it has scarred you both physically and emotionally, and the first thing – literally the FIRST THING – you do is nearly kill a boy because he looks like the lies your prophet told you? What the actual hell? That makes no sense whatsoever.

I did like, however, the fact that I have never seen a story like this before. The author’s writing style was also really easy to engage with, and read for a long time without needing a break. I thought that the gory parts were written exceptionally well, and I was even cringing at some of the descriptions.

I can definitely understand why a lot for people have loved this book, but I just couldn’t fall for it in the same way.

(Also, why the hell are there hands on the cover? If that is supposed to be the prophet’s book … Minnow never held it when she had hands, so this cover makes no sense at all.)

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