The Scent of Rain

Faced paced, and impeccably researched, The Scent of Rain opens a window into the little-known world of the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints. This book is written in the same spirit as a historical period drama, the characters are completely fictional, but the setting is largely factual. I was shocked and saddened to learn that many of the more disturbing elements of the FLDS community were not fictional plot devises that Ms. Montgomery invented to add drama to her story, but rather alarming facts. From birth defects due to inbreeding to the heartbreaking practice of men "marrying" young girls, the story effortlessly draws the reader into a world that few people know exists and even fewer are allowed to witness. The Scent of Rain is not an easy book to read in terms of subject matter, but it tells an important story. In the midst of the near relentless action of the plot, the reader is also forced to ponder some difficult questions about how our modern culture values children and women, as well as our individual responsibilities towards our neighbors. I will be thinking about this book for a long time.

Very disturbing, but also compelling. Montgomery's voice is a no-holds-barred approach to a terrible truth disguised as the love of God. Just the thing for a stormy night's read.

I was hooked in immediately. Ms. Montgomery's style and introduction of the characters made for a easy pleasure reading. I look forward to reading her other works as well.

Anne Montgomery has a great way of mixing local knowledge of Arizona with excellent story telling!

I wish more people would recognize and acknowledge what danger cults and sects of extremist religion present. Scent of Rain is a novel that touches on such subjects, told through the eyes of a young girl subjected to the horrors. It presents the stomach-churning truth of child abuse suffered at the hands of extreme Mormonism.While the story of Rose yearning for escape from her fundamentalist home is fiction, the surroundings are not. My husband is an ex-communicated Mormon (not one of the extreme groups, thankfully) and so I was announcing details to him as I read. He just looked at me and replied “yeah, that sounds right.” The novel seems to be an avocation for awareness of the subject, and it does so by not sugar-coating the details. Child brides, abuse, murder, xenophobia, molestations—I was disgusted and angry while reading. Not at the book or the subject matter in a sense, but the fact that these things still happen in the modern era. I’ll leave things at that to avoid sparking a controversial debate.I liked the cohesiveness of the characters and the various developments they achieved throughout. Free-will and free-thinking are presented as powerful allies when all seems lost. Personal strength, conviction, and faith are all tested to the breaking point. It aids in not just the story, but in spiritual growth and personal development. Obedience is a subject to be used with moderation, and the author does a good job demonstrating how obedience without question can be such a dangerous and disgusting thing. Hence why cults are seen as such reprehensible things, usually.This book excels in bringing out emotionality and conveying exactly the kinds of thoughts the author wanted. Now, there is some editing to be done. Mostly technical, though. This novel feels more like an exposé piece than a traditional novel, and so some of the missing elements are easily overlooked and forgiven.It’s easy to see that this novel was difficult to write, and kudos to the author for sticking with such a dark subject matter. I liked the very explicit, in-your-face presentation of the facts interwoven with the narrative itself.

I want to say I enjoyed this book, but that's not quite the right word. I read a fair amount of dystopian fiction and this novel, about a real-life dystopia, ranks with the most horrifying.I appreciated the author's research and the documentation she provided about the FLDS community in Colorado City. I did not know much about the FLDS until reading this book, and I think the author does a service by dramatizing and spreading awareness of the abuses that happen there. She is careful to distance this cult from mainstream Mormonism, who ended polygamy in 1890.The author is especially strong when she writes about the paradoxes inherent in her subject: the women wearing modern athletic shoes under their prairie dresses; the happy face painted on a truck touting how happy the dour townspeople are; the beauty and timelessness of the mountains and cliffs surrounding squalor and venality; the affectionate little dog murdered by her blundering, clueless oaf of an owner. That these paradoxes are accepted as normal by the young people makes sense, because they are young and it is all they have ever known. But the adults in this tale remained mysterious to me. The author dropped some tantalizing hints of their earlier lives, dashed hopes, and buried dreams, but I wished for more.The novel works on its own terms, as a thriller, although the pacing is a little off. I also thought that the author was trying to do too much in one relatively short novel. This story really needs to be about Rose Madsen. Rose stands also for the murdered Bonnie Buttars, for her disabled sister Daisy, and for all the girls and women who suffer oppression under this cruel system. Her escape gives them hope. Whereas Adan, Brooke, and Trak have their own stories--interesting, but separate. In this book everybody gets their happy ending, which warmed my heart but also seemed a little forced. It could have worked better as two separate books. The Adan/Brooke/Trak subplot could stand alone as its own novel about immigration and deportation, for example.Or, in a more ambitious and longer project, this novel could explore what it means to be an immigrant and the true meaning of community. This material is rich and multifaceted and the story is not over. Rose and Adan escaped, but others remain.

A great read and very well researched. Its not the first book i've read of this kind but this was really top. Ive struggled to put it down. Well done Anne Montgomery