The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes

No one is permitted to read or listen to music the Prophet claims these things belong to the Devil. Every family is large the Community practices polygamy, so each man has multiple wives and many children. They wake up early to milk the cows and carry out other necessary chores. Members of the Community live simple, rural lives. They are kept ignorant and subservient, with no knowledge of other ways of life.

The leader is Kevin, referred to as “The Prophet.” The sole purpose of a woman in the cult-referred to as the Community-is to marry and bear her husband’s children. But to receive his recommendation for the program, she has to tell him what she knows. He tells her about the Bridge Program, which would offer a way out of juvenile detention and into society. Wilson offers her a way to get out of juvenile. She is the survivor of a cult, and that cult’s village burned down just before she was arrested. She continues to wear the bloody shirt, refusing to take it off. They mingle with present-day Minnow in juvenile detention after being found guilty of assault. Gradually, flashbacks reveal Minnow’s past. They prepare to arrest Minnow, but they can’t handcuff her: she has no hands. The police arrive, along with medics for Philip.

She brutally beats a boy named Philip in the opening pages, kicking him over and over. The novel, narrated in the first person, opens with seventeen-year-old Minnow wearing a shirt soaked in blood. The plot is loosely based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale “The Maiden Without Hands.” The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly is Oakes’s first novel. But to do that, she’ll have to divulge a number of secrets from her past. An FBI agent offers her a deal in exchange for her cooperation. Published in 2015, it tells the story of a teenage girl with no hands who ends up in juvenile detention after escaping from a religious cult. The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly is a young adult psychological thriller by Stephanie Oakes.

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes