Monday, March 30, 2015

Down From the Mountain by Elizabeth Fixmer

Growing up in a cult-like religious community has turned Eva into an inexperienced, naïve young woman. Joining Righteous Path at the age of five with her mother, she does not remember much from the outside world and has no idea where her father is or if he has ever searched for her. Righteous path only has 17 members, most of which are women who are all married to their leader, Ezekiel.
This story revolves around Eva who finds out that she is very talented at making jewelry. They make jewelry for profit and make weekly trips to the nearest town to sell their creations. One day, Eva is allowed to make the trip down the mountain and experience the outside world for the first time since she was five. The outside world is scary at first since she was raised to believe all outsiders are heathens and sinners but she comes to realize that this may not be true. If Ezekiel lied about this, what else has he been deceitful about? Maybe he is not a prophet after all.

 Elizabeth Fixmer has done a wonderful job of creating a unique world and telling the story of a girl who transforms throughout the story. The descriptions of Righteous Path are wonderful and paint a scary picture of how it would be to grow up so sheltered and away from the world. After the first few chapters, I could not put the book down and became obsessed with the setting and story and rooted for Eva to realize she was in a dangerous situation and get the strength to escape and take her mother with her. 

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