Amity and Sorrow is a book that touches on a lot of sensitive themes. It starts with Amity and Sorrow running away from their father. They have been driving for 4 days when they have a wreck and end up stuck in OK. Then they stop running and start to heal from what they have left behind. Sorrow however is determined to get back home. As the story unfolds you will be horrified to learn exactly what their mother is trying to save them from.
This is a book that will make you squirm. It touches on topics that we really would rather not see the light of day. The book jumps from present day to the past so you get the whole picture in glimpses. It is reveled to you in bits.
It starts with a polygamous cult. It gives a clear picture of how that cult operates. At first when you learn they are 50 wives to one man you are slightly aghast but then as they explain you start to think that maybe just maybe there is nothing wrong with it. This is a good example of how the author pulls you in and makes you think the way that the cult members think. If we stay on the outside then it is easy for us to condemn the characters but once we get inside their minds we start to see the way they see and we can begin to sympathize.
During the book I kept wanting to slap some sense into Sorrow. She is an extremely unlikable character. Then I came upon what happened to her, and I couldn’t decide if I wanted to smack her or hug her. Try as I might I really couldn’t bring myself to have any real sympathy for her. It seemed she had a chance to escape but she runs right back to her situation. In the end I just decided she was an idiot who deserved what she got.
As I was reading the book I could see where they people got their ideas in the bible but at the same time I wanted to scream that not what it really means! The author did a good job a researching how people can take something and change it a tiny bit and make it seem all wrong.
This is also a book about redemption and hope. For Amity and Sorrow’s mother realizes that they way they are living can’t go on and she runs away to bring her daughters to a life outside the cult. Amity once she realizes that if she breaks the “rules” that her father invented that the world will not end embraces life outside of the cult. All through the book we cheer her on as she learns to live in the real world. She learns to read and do other stuff. Amy learns that there are men who are real and who do not twist things into a grotesque mask of what they are supposed to be. The only one who fails to find redemption is Sorrow and in a way it is fitting as there are people who remain stuck in their ways.
