Seed by Lisa Heathfield

 Seed by Lisa Heathfield

**This review is based on an ARC from Netgalley, it releases 3/10/15.

Seed is the only home that Pearl has ever known, and the people that she associates with consist solely of her “family”, which all live in a house together.  Seed is led by Papa S., a man who teaches them that Nature is the only thing to worship and Nature will take care of them all.  This means no hospitals, no outside people, no tvs, etc.  They grow their own food, make their own plain clothes, and take care of their own medical needs….until Papa S. allows an Outside family of 3 to move in with them–Linda, Ellis, and Sophie.  Linda knows one of the men of the family (called a Kindred) and he promises her that joining them will make her family happy and fix all their problems.  As Pearl and a few of the others get to know Ellis, he exposes them to truths from the Outside.  They start to see the wrongs that are taking place in their little community and try to decide if leaving is an option they should consider. Papa S. catches on that there are “sinful thoughts” happening among his group and decides to take matters into his own hands.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, Seed is essentially a cult. Pearl has been brainwashed to think that this is the best life she could possibly have and is baffled by the truths that she starts to learn. There is not a lot of action throughout much of the story, it all seems to pick up at the end; but, that doesn’t keep it from being an interesting story still.  I was intrigued by the way these people thought and how they lived. There is a strong undertone of immoral sexual behavior amongst the elder men and young girls, but nothing is mentioned outright. Most of us seem to find this kind of story fascinating, just think about how many news stories and books are out about people who have escaped from cults and how popular those stories seem to be. I would recommend this book to a lot of my students as something different. Overall, a good read!

My rating: 4/5