Forever Obsession: Review: The Family (Tour)

ASIN: B00ZPUMII2
Pages: 320
Source: Fantastic Flying Book Club

Publication Date: October 8, 2014
Appearance:

Just like any average seventeen-year-old, Twig loves her family. She has a caring mother and a controlling father. Her brothers and sisters are committed to her family’s prosperity…

All one hundred eighty-three of them.

Twig lives in the Family, a collective society located in the rainforest of Costa Rica. Family members coexist with values of complete openness and honesty, and they share a fear of contagious infection in the outside world.

Adam—their Father, prophet, and savior—announces that Twig will be his new bride, and she is overjoyed and honored. But when an injury forces her to leave the Family compound, Twig finds that the world outside is not as toxic as she was made to believe. And then she meets Leo, an American boy with a killer smile, and begins to question everything about her life within the Family and the cult to which she belongs.

But when it comes to Family, you don’t get a choice.

Hello everyone! Welcome to my review for The Family by Marissa Kennerson. Be sure to click the banner up above to check out the other amazing tour stops!

I haven't read a lot of books that deal with the cult life so diving into this book was super intriguing. The whole mentality of everyone in the Family is so twisted compared to what I consider normal. The idea that a whole community can see one individual person as their personal savior and believe everything he says even if it's the most ridiculous thing ever just blows me away. The faith that each individual member has in Father scares me because they will be willing to literally give their lives to him.

It was so interesting to see Twig grow from a mindless "zombie" to someone who has the ability to think for herself. It's almost funny to see her go from fearing the touch of an outsider because of their "disease" to falling in love with Leo. Her character goes from being a follower to that of an independent and that process teaches her more about herself as in individual. I really enjoyed seeing her relationships with Leo and her mother grow and how she learns to evaluate the relationships she was with the members of the Family to see how deep they really know her.

Adam, like I mentioned before, scares me so much because he is just a powerful character who abuses the power he has for his own self benefit. I am still confused as to why he even started the Family in the first place but the control he has over each individual member is just terrifying and fascinating. His charisma and charm coupled with his manipulative nature makes him a terrible person on the same level as some pretty bad villains.

Since we're talking so much about characters, let's talk a bit about Leo. There's a bit of insta-love going on between him and Twig since they met in a hospital and a relationship just happens. I'm kind of torn between really liking him as a character and being doubtful to how their relationship even works out. Then we have Avery, Twig's mother, whom I have a love hate relationship with. I admire her for stepping out of her "shell" and facing the problems she'd been hiding from but at the same time I want to yell at her for pulling her daughter into her own mess. And have I mentioned how freaking creepy Adam is?

The overall writing style is so gripping and thrilling that I had trouble putting this novel down. I enjoyed the story immensely and it was so cool to have a look into the cult life. Definitely check it out if you're interested!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Marissa Kennerson received her B.A. in English Literature from the University of California at Berkeley. Before earning her master’s degree in psychology and art therapy, she worked for Wired and Glamour. She lives in California with her family. The Family is her first novel (Full Fathom Five Digital) and will be coming out October 2014.