The Cresswell Plot

Debut author Wass fashions a haunting family portrait centered on the power of belief. After a lifetime of hearing that the Cresswell family constitutes the “only pure people left on earth,” 16-year-old Castley begins to suspect that her controlling and abusive father is not a prophet of God. With a dilapidated house, a neglectful mother, and food running out, Castley and her five siblings contend with their parents’ rigid rules along with a combination of fascination and invisibility in town and at school. When her father pronounces that “soon God will be calling us home,” Castley seeks an escape. Befriending a fellow drama student and reaching out to a relative she hardly knows, Castley finds that those promising help are terrified as well. Wass deftly manages the distinct voices and personalities of the many Cresswells. The dark heart of the story, suggestive of incest and sibling torture, will move many readers to question, as Castley does, whether liberation from their “father’s vision” is truly possible. Ages 14–up. Agency: Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency. (June)