Wives and Sisters by Natalie R. Collins

"Dying is easy. Living is hard, especially in the Outer Darkness."

". . . a simple straightforward tale that looks like a mirror-surfaced lake, but underneath the secrets of the human soul boil and seethe . . ."

It is better to die than to sin and disobey the church and God. Dying is easy. Living is hard, especially in the Outer Darkness.

At six, Alli and her best friend Cindy were playing with their dolls when a bearded man held a gun on them and told them to strip. Cindy and Alli ran but Alli looked back, tripped, fell, and was knocked unconscious. When she came to Cindy was gone never to be seen again. Alli was told to forget her friend, but she wouldn’t forget. The knowledge that her faith in God didn’t protect her or her family from pain and death pushes her farther and farther away from the devout beliefs of her youth. No matter where she turns she runs into her cast off religion and a demon from the past she fears to face, but from whom she can no longer hide.

Religion is a hot topic, but it is also a very touchy subject, and few really know what goes on in the heart of any faith. Natalie R. Collins, raised in the Mormon faith, tells the story of a young woman caught between love and faith and the ghosts of her past in Wives and Sisters. Collins writes a simple straightforward tale that looks like a mirror-surfaced lake, but underneath the secrets of the human soul boil and seethe, threatening to engulf any who come near. Collins’s protagonist is unashamedly self destructive and running from the ever present ghosts, but finally pulls herself together and fights back.

Wives and Sisters is a raw, emotional story that never gives into sentimentality. It puts a plain, unvarnished face on the secret workings of the human soul and the price of blind faith.

Reviewer: J. M. Cornwell