Book Review: Effigy

RATING:

3.75 cookies out of 5

What's it about?

This novel by Alissa York focuses on the inner-workings of a 19^th century polygamist family living in Utah. It narrows in on the different experiences of each of the wives, as well as their lives before becoming members of the family, and the complicated way they all interact. There is a lot of FLDS history here, as well as the Mountain Meadows Massacre which trickles through the entire story.

Who would enjoy it?

Anyone who finds novels about complicated families interesting, as well as anyone who, like me, finds polygamy fascinating in the same way as they might find a train wreck. If you’ve ever watched the TLC show “Sister Wives” and been so confused yet intrigued by how 3 women could possibly share one man, this is the book for you. It also has tons of American history which is always a good read.

What I liked:

I really enjoyed watching the family dynamic play out in a way that seems entirely unavoidable, given the polygamist lifestyle. The first wife rules with an iron fist and resents her husband, the second wife is the baby maker, the third wife is the one the husband took based on physical desire (and the jealous one who explodes at him if he sleeps with the others) and the fourth wife was married for her skills and not for love or companionship. Learning about these complicated women and their personal histories, as well as their individual relationships with the husband was brilliant. I also loved the way the author delved into another issue with polygamy, which is the relationship between older male children and the younger wives. What also won me over was that while at first the book seemed to jump around a fair bit, at the end the author pulled all the strings together and tied it up so neatly and so brilliantly, that I finished it with a feeling of elation and awe.

What I didn’t like:

At the beginning of the novel there was a lot of graphic cruelty towards animals, which I had a tough time reading. I found myself skipping passages to avoid giving the book up entirely. While ultimately these scenes proved necessary for the characters’ development and the novel’s, I really couldn’t stomach them. Maybe it’s a mom thing! Effigy also gives us too many flashbacks and fragments, as while they are very interesting, they break up the flow of the novel and make it take longer to read.

Overall:
A brilliant, haunting novel that is full of loss and memory, family and deliverance. Effigy builds the most effective dread towards the conclusion that I’ve read in a long time. Stunningly written, with a deep, multi-layered plot that forces you to keep turning the pages and find out where it’s all going, it is certainly one I’d recommend.