Appearances can be deceiving.
In the Community, life seems perfect. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Pioneer invited Lyla’s family to join his group and escape the evil in the world. They were happy to be chosen, happy to move away from New York and start over in such an idyllic gated community. Now seventeen, Lyla knows that Pioneer is more than just their charismatic leader, he is their prophet . . . but his visions have grown dark.
Lyla is a loyal member of the Community, but a chance encounter with an outsider boy has her questioning Pioneer, the Community—everything. And if there’s one thing not allowed in the Community, it’s doubt. Her family and friends are certain in their belief. Lyla wishes she could feel the same. As Pioneer begins to manipulate his flock toward disaster, the question remains: Will Lyla follow them over the edge?
First things first: this book is extremely intriguing, but it isn’t something that is sugar coated and tries to make it any easier to comprehend the occurrence of cults.
Now, for some interesting background info. In order to maybe get an idea of what Parker used for information, please go and do a little bit of research into The People’s Temple and Jim Jones, The Manson Family and Helter Skelter, and the Branch Dividians and David Koresh. For the most part, many of you will know the basics of these stories, but it does give you another lens through which to read this novel.
I think that the best part of this novel is the fact that we are reading the story from the point of view of a protagonist that was practically raised in the cult environment, and are given the unique ability to witness what it really could seem like from the inside. We witness as the character undergoes preparedness drills (which is somewhat indicative of the tv show Doomsday Preppers), and we get to see exactly how life inside of a cult from day to day could possibly be.
One of my favorite parts of this book is how each chapter starts with a quote. Now, at the beginning all of these quotes were from Pioneer (the leader of the Community), but as Lyla’s doubt concerning her future and that of the Community the quotes at the beginning of the chapters shifted. First they shifted to some Bible quotes, then to quotes from some famous cult leaders: Charles Manson and Jim Jones. I like that it was a very subtle way for the author to let us know that things were beginning to change in the narrative.
While I understand the use for some sort of love story in every young adult novel, I really liked that it wasn’t the main focus of the narrative. However, it did seem a little odd that he would be so interested in sharing the truth with Lyla and being so interested after just one quick afternoon. He also seemed very flat and without character flaws, which makes him seem too good to be true, but in essence he wasn’t really a character so much as he was a plot device.
The most disturbing part of this novel is how real it feels and how easily we realize it could be for people to become involved in organizations and communities like this. We just have to be vigilant and remember the past so we can look to the future.
I really enjoyed this book. It was fast paced, it had all of the realistic elements it needed, and the majority of the characters were extremely relatable.
4.5 Bards (minus .5 for Cody)
Moving! 