On 8 February 2024, I finally finished reading this book. I bought that book early October 2023 and started reading immediately. It’s not the number of pages (ie, 945) that caused my immense delay. At times, I’ve almost cursed this book given its topic: an evil and sadistic cult.
Most of the book is about that cult. On many days, I was only able to read a few pages. Many times, I considered filing the (unfinished) book in my cabinet. I even wondered about writing a letter to the writer (ie, J.K. Rowling). I decided to finish the book because I admire and respect its writer.
There must a reason writing about this horrible topic. The acknowledgement to her Editor (on the final pages) sheds some light: “a fellow cult aficionado”. This book is about the worst of cults that you can imagine. Giving more details would necessitate an avoidable spoiler alert. Hence, I will not.
Actually, the final page(s) of the book has (have) made me reconsider my verdict. It’s a good book rather than an utter failure. I have always remained hopeful about this conclusion but I have been in doubt for hundreds of pages. Is it better than good, like excellent? No, I doubt that.
Nevertheless, I’m still bothered why the writer uses hundreds of pages to outline the details of the evil and sadistic cult. Is it to convince readers staying far away from such cults?? The story suggests that such brainwashing is, however, easy given appropriate circumstances (no details here).
I prefer the way how TV series The Mentalist (rated #8.2 in IMDb) approached the (semi-evil) cult Visualize, a “Self-Realization Center Church”: with humour and wit. Fearing for the life of prime (fictional) character Robin Ellacott, for hundreds of pages, is not fun and quite tiresome.
“Happiness is a choice that requires an effort at times.”
A quote by ancient Greek tragedian Aeschylus (c.525/524 – c.456/455 BC) and used in this book
C.B. Strike | Official Trailer | Cinemax (video)
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.
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