I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to review a free advance copy of this book.

Author Rebecca Stott was raised in the separatist cult of the Exclusive Brethren from birth until a major schism saw her family finally withdraw. Stott was part of a third-generation Brethren family, and knew of no other way of life. She was forbidden all contact with outsiders and with worldly temptations such as reading novels, secular music, films; even eating in the company of outsiders was banned.

The Brethren evolved from being an isolationist Christian sect to something much darker and weirder, where members were hounded to suicide, families sundered and people withdrawn from for little or no reason. Withdrawal usually meant the loss of contact with all family members, and often one's livelihood.

Stott's father and grandfather were leading figures in the Brethren and played their part in these acts of intimidation and repression. After leaving the cult, her father had a crisis of faith which eventually did great damage to the family.

Stott's account of her ancestors initial involvement in the Brethren, and its gradual decline into a brutal cult is gripping and somewhat hair-raising. It is difficult to believe, as she intimates, that no doctor, teacher or other professional ever thought to intervene and ask what was going on with these people, rather than just look the other way.

The story of what happens after the family is finally extricated is both thoughtful and sad. Her own struggle to make sense of her life is ever-present, and one gets the sense that she will never entirely shake off the damage wrought by her formative years.

This book is a beautifully written account of a dark and secretive organisation, and the impact it had at a very personal level. It is moving, wise and compelling in equal measure. ( )

Such an interesting view into a cult. A group of people were are not living off in the wilderness on their own, or acting in a manner that would bring attention.

Instead, they seemed to blend into their surroundings, almost intentionally becoming invisible to English society around them. In their minds, they were "separate." But they shared a common theme with so many cults - power-hungry and unaccountable leaders.

The isolation, shame, and abuse described in this book are truly heartbreaking. ( )

Rebecca Stott wrote this book because she promised her father (Roger) she would complete his memoirs after he died. She did much more than that: she made the book her own story as well.

Rebecca was born into a cult, the Exclusive Brethren. So was her father, who became a high-level official in the cult. There were strict rules about dress, and isolating from worldly things like television, radio and non-cult members. Women were not allowed to speak during services (called Meetings) and were expected to cover their heads and not cut their hair.

Rebecca's family left the Brethren when she was around10 years old. What I found particularly interesting was something other memoirs I've read didn't speak to -- the way a child, who'd been told one thing for her whole life was now expected to believe differently. Watching TV and listening to music was more of a scary undertaking than an entertaining one at first.

Roger knew he was dying and wanted to write his memoirs, but found himself unable to write about his years as a Brethren priest when he forced members to confess to impure deeds or thoughts and enforced isolation from family and friends until the person was "cleansed".

The book provides a look at living in a cult, leaving one, and an honest look at the father-daughter relationship, both the good and the more challenging aspects. ( )

**I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Introduction
Rebecca Stott was born fourth-generation Exclusive Brethren, an infamous and extremely conservative Christian-based cult. How did those experiences shape her development and the rest of her life? How much did it contribute to her father's volatile personality?

The story
Ms. Stott promised her father that she would write a book about his life. She spent the first seven or so years of her life in the Exclusive Brethren, an extreme version of the Plymouth Brethren, during which time her father was a very prominent member. She shares her experiences, which are validated and fleshed-out using news clippings and interviews from other former members. Her father died before the book could be completed; however, Ms. Stott attempts to honor his memory as she exposes the volatile and unforgiving world of the Exclusive Brethren, starting in the early years of her great-grandparents and continuing through her childhood and the years immediately following her family's withdrawal.

Literary analysis
I was disappointed in the overall content of this book. The topic - one family's experiences in a cult - was promising and I had high hopes. The book spends a lot of time building up to the actual cult information. The author talks at length about her promise to her father, her struggle to find the time/energy to write the book, her fears surrounding the controversial topic, etc. Once she gets to what is, in my opinion, the meat of the book, it is hard to follow. The timeline bounces around constantly. I regularly had to go back a few pages or even chapters to try to figure out where I was in her historical context. The ending was also unsatisfactory, leaving me feeling like the author had simply run out of things to say and so ended rather glibly.

There were several supposedly Biblical references that were incorrect (e.g. the author states that Joseph was the youngest son of Jacob; this is not true - Benjamin was the youngest son.), as well as grammatical errors. As I received an advance copy, I expect that some of these mistakes have been corrected before publication in July 2017. I found this book difficult to read and considered abandoning it more than once.

Conclusion
I do not recommend this book. There are surely better historical and even personal accounts of the Exclusive Brethren out there if you are curious. The errors and disjointed nature of this book, along with the Ms. Stott's style of writing, were not engaging or easy to read. This is, however, only my opinion as requested by the publisher in exchange for this honest review. ( )

Rebecca Stott’s father had been wanting to write a memoir about his family life. For generations, his family had been members of a Christian sect that had steadily got more fundamentalist. He could only brush the surface of the past though as every time he ventured deeper into his memories the mental anguish meant that he could not carry on. When he was dying, he tried to persuade her to help him.

Rebecca had grown up in this Brethren sect too, with its draconian rules about what the members could and mostly couldn’t do, she was constrained in almost every activity that a normal child would have taken part in. They attended school but were not allowed to participate in any activities other than the learning. It was cruel too, with long term members being ‘denounced’ for the most arbitrary of reasons. The sect imploded to a certain extent after a sex scandal involving the American leader of the sect, JT Junior.

Her family dropped out too after this event, but because the cult had been so suffocating the family so much, they all struggled to re-connect with the normal world. The messages and culture that the cult had delivered had permeated her entire being. They began to rebuild their lives in their own way, she rebelled a little, had a child, dabbled in drugs and even managed to go to university, shoplifted and was afraid of the dark, but couldn’t even begin to tell people why this was.

The book is divided into rough thirds, “Before,” “During” and “Aftermath”, which were the piles of files and effects that she sorted through of her fathers at the time. It is pretty horrific reading at times, in particular about the levels of control that were exercised over the members, and the utter trust they had in the leaders of the cult. Just decompressing from the grip of the cult took a staggering amount of effort for them all. It is a deeply personal book, thankfully Stott writes with integrity and doesn’t try to blame anyone for her earlier life. Well worth reading for those that want a very different biography and to get some insight as to when does faith become a cult? ( )