The book takes a while to get to the action. It's written well and I did enjoy the exposition but I felt like the characters just weren't very relatable or that there wasn't much done to make me care about them. I especially didn't like how the cousin who reaches out to the main character in the first place is barely in the book. I'd have much preferred her being the secondary character. Instead,

we get Francis, who is fine but felt like the romance between him and Noemi was forced and unnecessary. It's not his fault that he was born to a cult but the combination of the protagonist falling in love with a guy whose family tried to do a number of awful things to her, and with which I didn't feel much spark or deep connection just felt needless.

 

I would have liked it better had that romance been replaced with the cousins interacting more and working together to get through this horror show.