Deceived by Melody Carlson

Deceived by Melody Carlson is a cautionary tale that tackles the issue of cults by focusing on a cult similar to the breakaway sect of the Mormon church, The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, headed by Warren Jeffs who was charged and convicted of the sexual assault of two under-aged girls. He is currently serving a life plus 20 years sentence.

Seventeen year old Rachel Hebert is spending her summer working at Nadine's Natural Ice Cream Parlor at the Rock Canyon Lake Resort. Rachel is living in the women's barracks along with other young women who are working at the resort. But Rachel's Christian faith means she doesn't participate in all the partying and drinking that goes on outside of work hours. This difference in values causes tension between Rachel and many of the other young women, leading her to feel isolated and alone.

Added to the stress she is experiencing at the resort, is that in her personal life. Life right now for Rachel is unsettling and confusing. Her mother announces to Rachel that her divorce is now finalized. This leaves Rachel questioning her parents belief in the permanence of marriage as their actions demonstrate otherwise. Rachel feels unmoored and distraught by her mother's willingness to leave Rachel at the resort for the entire summer while she "moves on", which Rachel takes to mean starting to date again.

Despite her lack of girlfriends, Rachel does make one good, twenty year old Josiah Davis, who lives with his uncle, the Reverend Jim Davis who runs both a new church and the Lost Springs Dairy. Josiah, who is from Australia, has been in the US for five months supposedly on missionary work. He told his mother this to escape the overbearing situation at home where his mother and step-dad belong to a radical religious sect called God's Eternal Church (GEF). Josiah's parents once both belonged to this sect, but his father left. Josiah works doing deliveries for the Lost Springs Dairy, the ice cream supplier for Nadine's shop.

Josiah is kind-hearted and respectful towards Rachel, who is completely smitten by him. Josiah shows genuine concern for Rachel, able to pick up on her down moods as she copes with the aftermath of the break-up of her family and also her troubles working at the ice cream parlor, where her coworkers do not like her. After going out on a date which they both enjoy, Josiah invites Rachel to attend his uncle's church. Rachel agrees and after going on a tour of the dairy, she attends two services which are held on the large complex that includes rustic cabins housing men and women who live simply. There are hints that Josiah's uncle's church might not be all that it seems, but both do not pick up on them. Both Josiah and Rachel are in need of stability and companionship in their lives right now and Reverend Jim's church appears to provide that. Meanwhile, a very lonely Rachel finds herself falling fast and hard for Josiah.

Rachel experiences an unexpected blow when she is framed by her co-workers and fired by Nadine for supposedly stealing two hundred dollars from the shop till. Unable to pay her road and board at the resort, Rachel calls Josiah in a panic. He suggests that she can come live at his uncle's compound but that she will have to work in order to stay there. Rachel accepts partly because she does not want to tell her mother what happened at Nadine's; she is afraid her mother might side with Nadine who is a good friend. But Rachel also sees Josiah's offer as a chance to spend the summer with him. Unwisely, Rachel does not tell her mother or Nadine about her move to Lost Springs.

As Rachel settles into Lost Springs, she begins to take note of troubling aspects of life in the compound. Men and women are kept apart, all her personal belongings including her cell phone are taken away from her and women are not free to walk around the compound unaccompanied. Miriam, the older woman with whom Rachel shares a rustic cabin, tells her that they are in the end times and that Reverend Jim is God's chosen prophet. But when Rachel learns several difficult truths about Reverend Jim's church, her doubt turns to fear and she begins to realize that she needs to leave before such a choice becomes impossible.

The issue of cults is an good one to explore through the medium of a fictional novel. Cults are still a serious threat to young people who are often dealing with family and identity issues and whose lack of life experience makes them especially vulnerable. Carlson creates a "perfect storm" for both Josiah and Rachel. Both teens have lost their safety net of the adults in their lives due the break up of their families and the loss of at least one parent from the young person's life. However, not all teens at risk from cults come from broken homes - plenty who are successfully recruited come from two parent homes. In this regard, Carlson's novel is somewhat misleading. The reasons why people join cults is not fully understood, nor why they remain.

The story is told by Rachel, who comes across as self-righteous and annoying in the first half of the novel. She's always on her co-workers case about the cleanliness of the ice cream stand and looks down on her peers as lazy and unmotivated. Unfortunately, we don't get to see Rachel change much in the novel, nor how the experience in the Reverend Jim's church changes her. She does rediscover her faith though when she finds herself in a dire predicament. The likable character in this novel is Josiah, who treats Rachel honorably and who owns up to making a mistake in getting involved in this strange church.

Carlson includes a short study guide at the back of the novel, but no resources or bibliography on cults for teens to explore further. This novel is part of her Secrets series that encourages teens to think about various issues relevant to their lives. Overall, it is a simple, general treatment of an issue that still is of concern to parents today.

For further information on cults check out Info-Cults in Montreal which is an excellent resource on cults.

Anyone truly interested in reading about cults should read Moonwebs: Journey into the Mind of a Cult by Josh Freed. I read this book in the early 1980's when it was first published and the "Moonies" were a real and visible presence in shopping malls (I was approached once by a recruiter) and airports in Canada. Family and friends of Benji Miller had to kidnap him and spent months deprogramming this brilliant young man, who was very resistant to many of the techniques used to deprogram cult victims. Freed details the extensive brainwashing techniques used on Miller in this cult.

Book Details:
Deceived: Lured from the truth by Melody Carlson
Colorado Springs: NavPress 2012
213 pp.

Shattered by Melody Carlson

Cleo is almost eighteen and a senior. She and her friend, Lola, want to attend a Christian concert in the city, at the Coliseum. Cleo is hoping to drive her father's car to the concert, but Cleo's mother is having none of it. When Cleo balks, her mother offers to come with her and Lola, sacrificing her own night out at her best friend's bachelorette party. Cleo doesn't want her mother to do this. She wants to go with her friend, not her mother. 

This concert is special to Cleo and Lola because it is Lola's last day in  the city. Lola's parents divorced last summer and  her mother Vera, is taking a new job in San Diego.The concert is one last time for Cleo and Lola to do something together before Lola moves.

Cleo is completely frustrated because her mother will not allow her any space to try new things and spread her wings as a young adult. She feels that her mother is suffocating her. But no matter how much she argues or tries to convince her mother of this, she will not let go. " 'There will always be something,' I say a bit too loudly. 'There will be car wrecks and epidemics and murders and all sorts of horrible things happening all over the planet, Mom. But that does not mean they'll happen to me. Don't you get that? Someday you will have to let me go! ' "

Upset at her mother's suffocating ways, Cleo decides to plan to attend the concert without her mother's knowledge. If she can't drive, Cleo decides she and Lola will take public transit to the concert. Although Cleo feels guilty about disobeying her mother and lying to her, her desire to be more independent overrules her feelings. When she and Lola arrive at the concert, Cleo pushes aside her feeling of guilt and tries to enjoy herself. After the concert they arrive safely home and Cleo decides she will confess to her mother what she did in the morning. Cleo never gets that chance because, incredibly,  her mother is killed in a carjacking outside the Coliseum that night!

From the messages left on her phone, Cleo learns that her mother returned home early and when she found Cleo and Lola gone, she drove to the Coliseum to pick them up. Her mother arrived early and while driving around waiting for the concert to end, she was carjacked and murdered. Cleo concludes that if she had not disobeyed her mother and gone to the concert, her mother would be alive today. Cleo truly believes she is responsible for her mother's death. It is her darkest secret that she will never reveal to anyone. She is overwhelmed with grief and pain and in order to cope with this pain Cleo begins taking tranquilizers. She becomes addicted to the prescription drugs and is soon buying drugs from a local dealer.

But there are several people in Cleo's life who are there to help her - her mother's sister, Kellie, who arrives shortly after the tragedy. Although Cleo treats her with disdain at first, calling her "slightly functional"  and tries to push her away, it is Kellie who is Cleo's saviour. Eventually things spiral downward to the point that Cleo is hospitalized. Her Aunt Kellie confronts her regarding her addiction based on her experience with her brother Kevin. She discovers Cleo's secret and helps her move forward with her grieving, encouraging her to experience the pain of her mother's death and telling her that she is not responsible for what happened to her mother. Cleo also meets a guy, Daniel Crane who she's been interested in since her sophomore year,  from her school. He expresses a sudden interest in her and it is this relationship that provides some of the impetus for Cleo to get well. 

Discussion

The storyline in Shattered  is very contrived, with Cleo's mother's murder the plot device that moves the story from one about a controlling mother to teen addiction. It is overly melodramatic and stretches credibility. Cleo's mother was highly dysfunctional and it was understandable that Cleo would try to break free of her mother's suffocating grip on her life. Cleo goes out for the first time in her life and her mother is murdered - making for a very contrived and almost unbelievable plot. In most normal families, what would be happening the night of the concert would be discussed well before the date. In the case of things happening last minute, Cleo's mother could have driven her daughter and her friend to the concert. She could have picked her up afterwards. This is what normal parents do if the circumstances are such that there is a safety issue. And the vast majority of teens attend concerts without anything dire happening.

It is interesting that in the front page of the book, Carlson indicates that "some of the anecdotal illustrations in this book are true to life and are included with the permission of the persons involved. All other illustrations are composites of real situations, and any resemblance....." While this may be true, many teens would find it hard to identify with the potential lessons in the book, given the strange circumstances they are framed within. Framing these issues under such extreme circumstances, detracts from the goal of the book and that of the publisher NavPress which as stated in the front of the book is "to helping people grow spiritually and enjoy lives of meaning and hope through personal and group resources that are biblically rooted, culturally relevant, and highly practical."

Despite the ridiculous turn of events, there are some good issues that can be discussed with teens; "helicopter parenting", teen independence, obedience, lying, prescription drug abuse and family life.

Book Details:
A Daughter's Regret. Shattered by Melody Carlson
NavPress 2011
199 pp.

Anything but normal by Melody Carlson

Anything but normal is the first book of Melody Carlson's that I've read.Carlson is a well known author of teen fiction that explores issues from a Christian perspective. In this book it is the issue of teen sexual activity and teen pregnancy that is explored.

Sophie Ramsay is a 17 year old student entering her senior year in anticipation of having a great year. Sophie  met Dylan Morris at the camp they both worked at during the summer. He told her, her spirit and commitment to God were what attracted him to her. And indeed Sophie was committed to God - she had made a pledge to remain chaste until she married. Now at the end of the summer, Sophie feels deep pain and humiliation. Dylan said he would call her when he returned but never has. When Sophie attends an end of summer get together, where Dylan's family is, she realizes by his behaviour that their summer romance is over.

When she overhears her friends at school discuss guys and how Dylan is the type of guy who would respect a girl whose taken a pledge to remain chaste, she feels betrayed. Sophie knows Dylan isn't that type of guy at all. She struggles to come to terms with breaking her pledge and her guilt. But Sophie fell for his smooth talking and now she's a girl in trouble.

At first, Sophie's response to her situation is denial. She will simply pretend she's not pregnant but underneath she feels fear and hopelessness. When she sees an Unwanted Pregnancy ad at the school, she decides to check out the local clinic, even though she knows abortion to be wrong. At the clinic, Sophie wonders how she was not able to get an Advil at school for menstrual cramps without her parent's consent, but now could obtain a surgical abortion as a minor without her parent's knowledge. When Sophie says she wants an abortion, strangely the counselor suggests that adoption is an option. Not able to get an abortion that day, Sophie abandons the idea.


During this time Sophie attracts the attention of Wes Andrews who is genuinely concerned for her and who thinks she's cool and smart. He asks her to the homecoming dance and because he's so nice, Sophie agrees. While no one is aware of her predicament, Sophie manages to snag the coveted position of chief editor of the school newspaper. It is her writing for the newspaper that Carlson uses as a voice for a discussion on teen pregnancy.

Sophie needs to write an op-ed and decides to write a piece on teen pregnancy and how teens should not be sexually active because they are not mature enough to accept the consequences of such activity, namely becoming parents. When the piece creates controversy within the school, Sophie is confronted by the head of the school teen pregnancy center, who challenges her to visit the center. Sophie is surprised that there are so many girls and that they are from all different backgrounds. So she writes an article about the teen pregnancy center that is published on the front page. This further ignites the controversy and moves it into the community. Sophie finds that she must confront her friends' preconceived notions about the girls who get pregnant, all the while hiding her own condition.

Eventually Sophie decides that she can no longer hide her pregnancy. She feels like she is living a lie. She tells her family and friends, some of whom have difficulty reconciling her actions with the person they know her to be. However, when she tells Pastor Vincent what really happened he is appalled by Dylan's behaviour, mainly because Dylan professed to having a strong faith and a reputation that was respectable. In fact, he took advantage of Sophie and was quite willing to let her suffer the consequences of his actions, alone.

Sadly Dylan represents a lot of young men today, men who use young girls and then abandon them. His true character is revealed in the meeting between Dylan and Sophie's families.

Carlson pulls no punches in letting her readers understand some of what Sophie endures - the fear of discovering an unplanned pregnancy, the denial of the situation, the humiliation of being abandoned by a guy who tells you he loves you just to have sex, the embarrassing gynecological exams, the pain of delivery, the feelings of loss and sadness at giving up your baby, the judgement of friends and family. It's all there but not overdone.

Anything but normal deals with many issues including how many girls are pressured into early sexual activity by manipulative boys, the issues of abortion and adoption, birth control, attitudes towards pregnant teens and the role of abstinence in preventing pregnancy.

Overall I felt Carlson succeeded in presenting these issues in a balanced manner. Sometimes Sophie's voice seemed too mature, particularly when she was observing attitudes in the clinic. The clinic worker presenting the option of adoption seems improbable based on research and anecdotal evidence. Health and abortion clinics tend to promote abortion as the only choice.

I plan to read more of Melody Carlson's books. Readers need to be aware that she does write from a strong evangelical Christian point of view. This is not a drawback but it does affect the overall tone of the book.

Book Details:
Anything but normal by Melody Carlson
Grand Rapids: Revell Publishing  2010
254 pp.