This is a good read and quite insightful into the complex world of a cult

Alice is a great character and although she knows things are not quite right she is drawn into the people and their beliefs.

It is told in two lines but 20 years apart so we get to see the befores and afters. Alices life is turning out to be the parrallel of her mothers and to break this cycle she has to leave.

This is a unique and intriguing read and I was really eager to see how it would end..

Brother Richard and over 100 members of the Collective all disappear in an instant. It's the Homegoing that he's been talking about for years. Alice Greene watches as her mother, father and husband vanish in a beam of light.

Alice, who is pregnant with a baby she wasn't supposed to have, quickly learns she's not the only one left behind. Among the remaining is Edwin, Alice's best friend. When Edwin leads the remaining members as instructed by a letter and video left behind from Brother Richard, Alice's plans to escape the Collective are squashed. When she discovers a journal left behind by her mother, Alice learns that everything is not as she was told, and she must escape before it's too late.
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Another cult book...my favorite. Brother Richard is exactly who you think a cult leader would be: Charles Manson minus the murders. Alice, as a character, was smart and someone it was easy to root for.

I DO wish there was some explanation about the disappearance, but also, it's nice not knowing. Sometimes the mystery is better left unsolved.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

If you’re ever gone through a cult phase (iykyk) then you HAVE to read this book.

Somewhere Past The End is a story told in two timelines. We meet Alice having to deal with the aftermath of a mass disappearance of the fellow members of The Collective, the cult she was born into, while also getting the perspective of her mother in retrospect journal like entries.

The author shows compassion to both women who, like many, get stuck in the repetitive cycle of a cult. Both of our main characters are smart, thoughtful, and periodically aware of how absurd their reality is but they doubt themselves and stay stuck in the cycle.

Alice, our present tense narrator, tries to grapple with her new reality after 130 of her fellow Collective members suddenly disappear in the “Homegoing” .

Teresa, Alice’s mother, tells us of the struggles that led her to Brother Richmond and The Collective in the first place and the way everything changed for the worse as the years went by.

Written with compassion and in a way that makes both women feel real and understandable while still writing frustrating moments where you just want to shake them, I found this novel incredibly compelling and beautifully written!

Would absolutely recommend!

4+ 🌟


A book about a cult ??? I am definitely in!!

This was an interesting one, told over two timelines, so you could see why the young couple were drawn in, but also why that lifetime member might want to leave.
How the ideals have soured, and loyalties have been tested and often found wanting.
Fascinating how one man becomes leader without (much) question to all.
An excellent book that I'm going to be thinking about for a while.
Also, shootout to the Camerons, who were just the best.