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BOOK TOUR STOP x INSTABOOKTOURS - The Cult by Abby Davies

 


It started out as Paradise. It turned into Hell.


Love was just six years old when her father left the community and their family behind. Uncle Saviour had created a paradise of peace and harmony, so even without her Father she knew she would always have a home with him. He was enlightened, awakened in ways most people couldn't even understand. But she understood him, loved him and followed him without doubt. 

That was over thirty years ago...

Now everything is different. When Lilys children go missing in the dead of the night, the only clue left for DI Ottoline is a trampled mask found abandoned in the woods. She is desperate not to let another child be lost in the echo, and the search for answers leads her and Lily back decades ... to a quiet little commune with a lot to hide. 


"It wasn't a cult. It was a community. A good place where good people came together and lived in harmony."


Told over the span of decades, The Cult follows Lily, her husband and the police on their present-day search for the missing children, and Love on her journey from childhood to adulthood, watching as she grows up with every turn of a page. Watching her was chilling, it was easy to get attached to her right away and watch on in horror as she continues to be slowly brainwashed by an evil cult leader into something dark and twisted, willing to do anything for her perverse admiration of Uncle Saviour. 

Each character was a moral conundrum - written in such a masterful way so that we can see the light and the dark in them all, trying to understand how they fell so far but still hoping for some form of redemption or forgiveness. 

This story isn't for the faint of heart - and some readers may find the content distressing as it does contain depictions of violence and sexual assault, some of this towards minors. 

Almost like Uncle Saviour, the author gives us just enough information to make sure we keep following, just enough so that we feel we understand what's happening but there's always something else hidden below the surface. Some of the twists and turns were obvious from the beginning, but this only lulls the reader into a false sense of security so the next disturbing turn hits you even harder. 

Devastating, disturbing and almost impossible to put down, this gripping tale is sure you leave you looking over your shoulder. 


⭐⭐⭐⭐


About The Author 

Abby Davies was born in Macclesfield in 1984. She grew up in Bedfordshire in a seventeenth century cottage near Flitton Moor and started writing ‘thrillers’ when she was seven years old.

After reading English Literature at Sheffield University and training to be an English teacher, she competed in national Modern Jive competitions (featuring on the podium several times), and wrote novels in her free time.

In 2012 she took a break from teaching and gained a Creative Writing MA from Nottingham Trent University. She has taught at both state and independent schools, including Jilly Cooper’s and Minnette Walter’s old school in Salisbury. She was shortlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition in 2018 and longlisted for the Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award in 2019. 

Her interest in the human mind inspired her to write Mother Loves Me which was published by HarperCollins in 2020.

She lives in Wiltshire with her husband, daughter and two cocker spaniels.




Thank you to Abby Davies and @InstaBookTours for inviting me to join this tour. I was gifted an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review.

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