Esther has been one of the Special Ones for almost two years. This means she is viewed as a spiritual guide, an immortal being who lives a simple life in an isolated farmhouse and online chats with her eager followers. She is always watched by a mysterious he, the leader they have never met, who decides if they are living up to their true Special potential. If they aren't, they are renewed, and never return to the farmhouse again.

Like another recent read, Hex, this book is fantastically strange and so unique. I love reading a book where I feel like I've never read anything like it before. This book is so mysterious, which meant I could not put it down. I had to know what was going to happen next.

Towards the middle of the book, I felt like things started to move maybe a little too fast. This is one of those books I think could have been a little longer to flesh out things even more.

This is a quick, gripping read that will keep you engaged and constantly guessing. ( )

I really enjoy books that have a new scenario that I have not encountered before. In this one a psychopath ( who is never named and called "he" throughout the book) is trying to create his own perfect society based on a photo of 4 pioneers. To this end, he kidnaps 3 girls - two teenagers and a younger girl and hires another stand boy to look after them. They are held prisoner in a farmhouse where their daily life is filmed for the internet and every night they must answer "followers" questions about living "purely" in an internet chat room.
This is Stockholm syndrome at its best, as the kidnapped girls succumb to the roles they are assigned ( they must read a memory book and commit it to memory ensuring they behave and act like their character should) and some basically become to believe they are the reincarnation of these pioneering women.
If the girls cannot accept and conform, they are punished in various ways at night ( locked in cellar, self-flagellation, starvation, etc) or the ultimate - they are sent away to be "re-born" as another captured girl. ( )

My goodness, this was a creepy, compelling read and from the first page the author had me intrigued. I liked Esther as the main protagonist. She was strong, resourceful and intelligent, and I enjoyed following her journey. However, I found the second half of the book a bit disjointed because of the changing perspectives. Although it wasn't difficult to work out whose voice was whose, I think it would have been better had the name of the narrator appeared at the start of each chapter. "He" was a truly drug-crazed, mixed-up character and a total psychopath. ( )