Somewhere Past the End
Soon-to-be mothers struggle with cult brainwashing in Alexandria Faulkenbury’s question-filled novel Somewhere Past the End.
Disowned after her teenage pregnancy, Teresa finds a new family with Richmond and his alternative religious group, the Collective. Years later, Teresa’s daughter Alice is pregnant against Richmond’s orders. She intends to escape the Collective while the cult members gather to be uplifted to heaven. She is forestalled when she witnesses the group disappear into thin air, leaving her behind. In the aftermath, Alice must decide whether to lead a second Homecoming with her childhood friend Edwin.
The book is ever compassionate and nonjudgmental toward those under the sway of cults. Depictions of Teresa’s frustration and stress as an impoverished teenage mother, as when she cries about losing quarters for laundry, are heartfelt and vulnerable. When she makes the flawed choice to trust Richmond’s initial charitable generosity, it’s sympathetic. Why people stay in cults is considered with similar nuance and empathy. Teenage Alice explains, “Maybe I hate it here, but it’s still my home”; adult Alice is protective of the remaining Collective members despite Richmond’s flagrant abuses.
Intimate in portraying abuse, trauma, and motherhood, the narrative overflows with grief and loss. Revisiting her now-abandoned childhood home on the Collective farm, adult Alice laments, “I feel like that same little girl, small and unsure of myself.” Throughout, Richmond’s villainy is diabolical, looming, and terrifying. He uses shame, lies, breadcrumbs of approval, and former fond memories to amass power. The genuine kindness of strangers is touching, and Alice’s relationship with Edwin, an always zealous supporter of the Collective, adds interpersonal suspense. She cannot help considering Edwin a friend despite his mind games.
Struggling against cult leaders, mothers fight to protect their daughters in the mournful novel Somewhere Past the End.
Reviewed by
Isabella Zhou
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