IN THE CLEARING

A girl trapped in a cult and a mother with a tragic past are set on a collision course.

Freya Heywood lives about an hour outside of Melbourne with her young son, Billy. She can fit in with the other school moms well enough: She teaches yoga, drives a Land Rover. But nearly 20 years ago, Freya was involved in an incident that caused her to permanently lose custody of her first child. And this isn’t her only secret, either. Freya manages to keep her past at bay with panic buttons and top-notch security, but there are signs that danger is encroaching on her life with Billy: strangers near her house, tokens left on her doorstep. Near Freya’s property, Amy is one of almost a dozen children and teens living at the Clearing as part of a New Age group modeled closely on the chilling case of The Family, a cult active in Australia in the 1960s and '70s. Amy and her “siblings” are given little food, punished in horrific ways, and sexually abused. But they believe in the power of their leader, Adrienne, and they will do anything to help her “liberate a child from the world outside” to complete their circle. Pomare runs Amy's and Freya’s narratives in parallel until, little by little, they begin to intersect in increasingly spine-tingling ways. Pomare’s taciturn narration can sometimes mean the characters’ inner lives are locked away from readers, and the characters as a result can feel a bit hazy. Overall, though, Pomare’s deft plotting tempers the difficult-to-bear passages of cult life, and in keeping his narrative cards close to his chest, Pomare is able to pull off red herrings galore and crafty, satisfying twists.

A heart-pounding novel made heart-rending by its reflection of real-life events.