As someone who is...shall we say wary of organized religion, this was one of the most interesting books I've read in quite a while. There's no adventuring but it is very analytical of who and what makes us think as a society. In this world, these communities literally give up their daughters and pray religiously in this weird mixture of...pagan actions while praying to a Christian God because they've been told to do things a certain way and they just do so kind of blindly.

I can definitely see why it wouldn't appeal to some with it's pacing alone. Even the traveling by the characters is done at a slow pace but it's steady and the book is under 300 pages. The characters, the curse and the weird creepy ominous social atmosphere were just incredibly interesting. Also, I'm kinda terrified of snakes but I found them more interesting and...mythical in this book. I never once scratched by head when it spoke about snakes like...being in her hair. This is a quick really interesting read for me that has me pleasantly surprised!