Trigger warning: possible sexual assault, possible incest, stillbornI read this between 2005-2012. The book opens with the narrator thinking her older sister is carsick. The family is on some kind of road trip. It turns out her sister is pregnant, and goes into labor in a parking lot. The father of the baby was a family friend or possibly related by blood to the girls. I think he was a preacher. The family was super Christian. The narrator freaks out when she realizes the details of her sister's pregnancy. Her sister tells her the father of the baby told her they were making Jesus each time the abuse occurred. The teen compares herself to the mother of Jesus and prophets. The narrator responds negatively. She wants to help her sister get out of the situation. Her sister asks quietly, "But what if I liked making Jesus?" and hints it's been going on for years, but this is the first time the abuse resulted in pregnancy. The baby is stillborn.The teen sister wears long, dark skirts and long sleeves. The narrator wears t-shirts and jeans, and her mother and her sister's abuser frown on this. The mother doesn't know, and later doesn't believe the girls. A lot of other stuff happens in the narrator's life during the book, but I can't really remember. She's quiet and shy. This was a physical book I checked out from the library. I think it was a paperback with a colorful cover.I'll comment if I remember anything else.
Amity & Sorrow is a story about God, sex, and farming. It's an unforgettable journey into the horrors a true believer can inflict upon his family, and what it is like to live when the end of the world doesn't come.A mother and her daughters drive for days without sleep until they crash their car in rural Oklahoma. The mother, Amaranth, is desperate to get away from someone Amity & Sorrow is a story about God, sex, and farming. It's an unforgettable journey into the horrors a true believer can inflict upon his family, and what it is like to live when the end of the world doesn't come.A mother and her daughters drive for days without sleep until they crash their car in rural Oklahoma. The mother, Amaranth, is desperate to get away from someone she's convinced will follow them wherever they go - her husband. The girls, Amity and Sorrow, can't imagine what the world holds outside their father's polygamous compound. Rescue comes in the unlikely form of Bradley, a farmer grieving the loss of his wife. At first unwelcoming to these strange, prayerful women, Bradley's abiding tolerance gets the best of him, and they become a new kind of family. An unforgettable story of belief and redemption, Amity & Sorrow is about the influence of community and learning to stand on your own. ...more