This had everything going for it: cult stuff, isolated community, estrangement from family, and a dash of classic horror nods. However, it was ultimately a letdown. 

Of the things I liked, I don’t know that a single one of them was done with real skill. There was perhaps 10% of the book that felt like it delivered on the promise, and that was around the ~80% mark. 

The major problem for me was that I just did not like Vesper as the narrator, and the audiobook narrator did not help matters. I did not care about her or her problems at any point. It was a whiney mess. And then beyond all that, it was a pretty boring book. Related but spoilery stuff:

I didn’t appreciate how Constance was kind of slandered in the text. There were so many signs that Constance wanted her daughter to live, cared about her in the way she could, but Vesper was either too stupid to pick up on them, or else the author didn’t know what they were doing. Constance tries to get Vesper away from the farm by any means necessary, didn’t even want to have her, but all Vesper thinks is “boo hoo she hates me” because she was too stubborn to do her Satanist homework. Smh.

Every time something interesting was teased, we were thrown back into the hum-drum of Vesper’s boring ass life. None of the interesting bits ever amounted to anything. None of this was even scary. I think the most extreme emotion I felt while reading/listening to this was dread - I dreaded hearing about every stupid choice this dumb girl made. 

I don’t think this is worthwhile for people who want to read about cults. This is much more of a family drama with the cult as a backdrop. I would not consider this horror. It’s closer to a dark fantasy lit fic. Consider these things before picking it up.