After We Were Stolen

To prepare, endure, and thrive – that’s why Avery and her family have been chosen. Living in Clovelite, their isolated family homestead, her parents and their ten children spend their days preparing to survive when the world destroys itself – an inevitability her father is bound and determined to lead their family through.

It doesn’t take long for his ruthlessness to spark a horrific chain of events, and when Avery and her brother Cole learn the truth, their worlds will never be the same again.

The author gives a warning before this book begins that her goal was to celebrate the strength of the human spirit and the fortitude needed to break the cycle of abuse and emerge triumphant – but that to do so, her characters had to undergo hardships that were difficult to write. She succeeded on both fronts; the beginning of this book is a disturbing portrayal of several traumatic events. But I truly felt the journey that Avery went through more than matched them in inspiring hope and admiration for a character I was rooting for from the start.

After We Were Stolen was a very emotional read, one that tugged at my heartstrings, made me laugh, and made me cry. It never felt over the top, or like the author was taking cheap shots to inspire easy emotional reactions in her readers. Brooke Beyfuss instead writes very authentic situations and characters, ones that feel possible and real. This is a relatively short book, but it delivers an impact that belies its size – I think it’s an incredible read, one I’ll remember it for a long time to come.