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libraryalissa 's review for:

The Wrong Way Home by Kate O'Shaughnessy
4.5
adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book fills a huge whole in the market that I’ve never even considered: middle grade books about cults. This one was very well done and nuanced. Fern was given the space to process and deprogram from her experience, as well as to mourn the changes in her life. As a middle school librarian, I hope there continue to be books like this, especially slightly aged up from this one. This is the exact type of topic middle schoolers would eat up if the cover/protagonist/writing were a little more mature. As is, I would say the sweet spot for this one is grades 5 and 6.