Phew... This was a tough read for me. Don't get me wrong, it was a very engaging story that I easily got lost in. However, the subject matter was tough. I have a really hard time reading about the lives of people with extremely religious/political beliefs and in this story, there was a bit of both.

Kambili, her brother, and their mothers lives are completely controlled by their extremely religious father that punishes them for a wide variety of "sins". Even when their father wasn't physically present, we saw just how tight a hold he had on the family through the thoughts that Kambili had.

Throughout the story, the punishments that their father gave seemed to become worse and worse. Luckily, the siblings were able to go visit their Aunt for a time to learn what life was like outside of their home, and then again when things got really bad back at their home.