Benjamin Boquist

I binge listened to the audiobook on a long car ride up the coast and thoroughly enjoyed it. It made me swear out loud, smack the steering, tear up and say “aww” at various points. It tied together in a satisfying way and had some interesting things to say about religious trauma. But the middle third of it was very ugly and tense. I found all the scenes on Chapman farm so nihilistic and gross, I almost gave up midway. The villains are sadists and they dominate the book. There are prolonged scenes of people in pain (even children). One scene in particular felt like torture porn. But there were also moments of tenderness and heroism to balance these. I loved when strike told off the cult leaders. There are a couple delicious take down moments that felt so right. But My favorite parts of all these books are the private thoughts of characters. Robin and strike have such rich histories, biases etc that any time we get to see inside their heads it’s thrilling. I’m glad I listened. But I’m also gonna be disturbed by the gross Chapman farm scenes for longer than I’d like.