Raise your hand if you read a ton of VC Andrews in middle and high school? Don't even play - I saw all y'all reading those mass market paperbacks from the library under the covers at night! It's been a while since I read that level of crazy, so it only makes sense that I couldn't stop reading the insanity that is The Cresswell Plot. Before we get too far, remember, this is the book that bloggers got buried in a box of dirt.

Ok, we've established that this book is going to be a little out there. Cults. Sibling marriage (or the mandate of such). Mysterious death of a brother who has been reincarnated. This book has everything!

I didn't know what abuse felt like because I didn't know whether I was experiencing it or not.

Castella and her siblings are living within the cult confines of a religious-extremist family where her overbearing father has written his own version of the Bible and they spend most of their time reading it. The kids only go to school because at some point Child Protective Services got involved and mandated it - Father doesn't believe they need to be educated and besides, the only pure people are the ones within their family. Hence the mandate of marriage within. Luckily the kids don't buy this 100% and start to rebel. The questioning only leads to further clamping down and time spend in God's Chamber, a hole in the ground where you fast of human interaction as well as food while you pay penance. It only goes downhill from there, as you can imagine.

At times it's hard to read because you don't want to believe that there are families and children still living this life, being indoctrinated about their sin and needing to be sheltered lest they become less pure. That's what makes your skin crawl as you read it. This stuff actually happens daily here, where you can see it! You can watch it on TV. Gross. But real. And terrifying.