Author: Jennie Melamed
Publisher: Headline/Hachette Australia
Publication Date: 11 July 2017
Pages: 352
Format: EBook - PDF
Genre: Literary Fiction
Source: ARC via NetGalley
Gather the Daughters tells the story of an end-of-the-world cult founded years ago when ten men colonised an island. It's a society in which men reign supreme, breeding is controlled, and knowledge of the outside world is kept to a minimum. Girls are wives-in-training: at the first sign of puberty, they must marry and have children. But until that point, every summer, island tradition dictates that the children live wildly: running free, making camps, sleeping on the beach. And it is at the end of one such summer that one of the youngest girls sees something so horrifying that life on the island can never be the same again. (Goodreads Synopsis)
Gather the Daughters was a compelling read. I enjoyed the multiple narrations--seeing things from the points of view of different girls in the community. The story was well paced and kept me turning the pages from start to finish, wanting to know how things would play out. The only small issue I had was the ending, which felt a tad abrupt after the slow build-up, despite being mostly satisfying. Overall, though, it was a thoughtful and captivating read.
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