Drought by Pam Bachorz

I don't know if you have read Candor, by Pam Bachorz, but I have.  I read it in a single day and spent about 2 days constantly thinking about whether I loved it or hated it, in the end I decided that any book that made me dwell for that long must be a book that I love.  Well, Bachorz has done it yet again!  Where does she come up with these ideas?  I don't know, but they are new and fresh and thought provoking! 

I read drought in 2 days (only because my husband is gone and I couldn't sit and read the entire thing in one day).  I simply could not put it down!  I was thinking about Ruby and Ford and wanted to know what they were doing and how it would work out. 

My brief summary is... Ruby and her mother, Sula, are members of the "congregation".  They worship and follow the teachings of Otto, the person that is god for them, but he is a person and left them 200 years ago.  Yes, 200 years ago.  Otto (and his daughter Ruby) have special healing power in their blood that sustains the congregation and keeps them alive forever.  Without the blood they would whither away quickly.  Ruby must add drops of her blood to their water to keep the congregation strong and healthy because they live under the reign  and torture of Darwin.  He keeps them working night and day collecting water in a peculiar way that he believes gives the water its power.  The Elders of the congregation has protected Ruby her entire life and protected her but they can't protect her from love and from Ford, the kind new overseer that has come to work for the summer.  Even Ruby's mother can do nothing to keep them from falling in love and the decisions that must be made will affect everyone on the mountain.

I enjoyed the book a lot, and really liked how she handled Ruby's cult-like world view and showed shadows of doubt the crept in over time showing that Ruby was thinking for herself and not just following what everyone else told her.  She made Ruby a strong and likable protagonist, not whiny and not shallow.  The whole premise of the book was hard to wrap my mind around and figure out, people living for 200 years and more and how did overseers never catch on and how did Ruby grow up over 200 years and still look only about 17 with her mother still treating her like a child when she was really 200 yrs old.  I didn't understand that at all.  There were weird things about it but overall I would say I give this a 4 out of 5 stars.

My thought is that as strange and different as the story was, any book that keeps my attention that closely and makes me continue thinking about the characters for days after deserves at least the 4 stars. 

Spiritual Content....
It does deal A LOT with worshiping and thanking Otto.  Ford tries to tell her about Jesus and tells her she is sinning by thinking her blood can save anyone because Jesus is the only one that can save by his blood.  She argues with him about whether he has seen this Jesus person heal and he says no at which point he can't argue anymore.  So there are a lot of spiritual implications in the story since they whole thing is based around the fact that she is the daughter of their god and her blood does save people on a daily basis.