I always wonder how women get sucked into cults. What’s can lure a woman to do things they normally might never consider, say marrying fifty other women in a polygamous relationship with one man? Amity & Sorrow, Peggy Riley’s debut novel addresses this very question as Amaranth flees the cult she had been a part of since the beginning. Charismatic cult leader Zacariah had sought to take their daughter Sorrow as a new wife, and Amaranth made the decision to flee with her two daughters. She drives for four days straight before crashing the car in Oklahoma. There she tries to figure out how to navigate the outside world. Her daughters, raised their whole lives in a small enclave, have an even harder time. Sorrow believes she’s the Oracle, meant to bring a new messiah into the world. She longs to be back with her father and embarks on a self-destructive mission to return to the cult. Amity, younger and more naive, tries to watch out for her sister and figure out her role in the new family structure. The whole book is disturbing, claustrophobic almost with a creepy ending. Peggy Riley has written a memorable first novel.