Friday, September 18, 2015

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes




At work this week, my friend Brenda was telling me about a book she read over the weekend.  Brenda had read a review of this book and picked it up.  She was asking me if I had read it, and I hadn't even heard of it!  She brought it in for me to read and even though I don't usually get much reading done through the week, I found myself staying up way too late reading it.

I'm not exactly sure how to describe this book, but it was such an rich story.  Minnow is the main character and when we meet her, she is in a juvenile detention centre.  As the story unfolds, we discover how she ended up there.  It is certainly not as simple as the fact that she committed a crime, which she did.  But it is about her whole life and how it lead to the moment of committing a crime.  As we learn about what it was like growing up in a cult community, the reader starts to understand why Minnow trusts no one, not even herself.  As she tells her story, she starts questioning everything she has ever believed and has to come to grips with what she now believes in and mostly learning to trust herself.

I'm not sure I am doing justice to this story at all.  Let's just say I could not put it down.  Minnow is such a complicated, yet simple character.  Her story is complicated, but simple.  I would have this book in my grade 7 classroom, but I would be careful who was reading it.  There is certainly some mature content.  

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