Book Review: The Cresswell Plot by Eliza Wass

Title: The Cresswell Plot
Author: Eliza Wass
Published: 2016
Source: NetGalley

Summary: They are the weirdest family in town. Shut-ins with odd clothes and strange ideas, the the Cresswells know they are special, chosen by God, and will go directly to heaven when the end times come - which will be soon, their father assures them.

But waiting for the end times isn't good enough for Castella. She yearns to be normal, to act in plays, and hang out with people she's not related to. She may not get the chance.

As their father spirals further into his megalomaniac religious fervor, she and her siblings start to fear that instead of waiting for the end times, he's going to make them happen.

First Impressions: So that was weird, but not quite as weird as it really wanted to be, I feel.

Later On: I don't have a whole lot to say about this book, but the thing that made me most violently uncomfortable was the quasi-romance with her brother. Her brother. There's not even adoption, secret or otherwise, to maybe make this a little less icky, this is straight up DNA matching incestuous attraction. They've been told their whole lives that they're fated to marry each other in Heaven, so there's some family brainwashing at work, but it still icked me out so terribly that I kept reading for the moment when she started to break free of that. SPOILER: she never really did. Yiiiiiikes. SPOILER

Beside that, the plot was diffuse and meandering and I kept wondering what exactly was going on and where it was all headed and why so much of it felt like weird for weird's sake. The psychological barriers to escaping this messed-up family were well-done, I'll give you that. But . . . her brother!

More: Not Acting My Age