The Smaller Evil
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2.0 • 1 Rating
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A troubled teen gets drawn into an enigmatic “self-improvement” retreat (possible cult?) and soon find that’s there’s nothing holistic (or safe?) about the type of enlightenment this program is offering.
“Suspenseful and enigmatic.”—Laura Ruby, Michael L. Printz Award winning author of Bone Gap
“Readers interested in a Gillian Flynn-style take on cults and self-help retreats will be intrigued.”—School Library Journal, starred review
Stealing from his drug-dealing step-father and running away from home are worth the risk for seventeen-year-old Arman Dukoff. Because running away means running to Beau, the charismatic self-help guru who sees something in Arman he’s never seen in himself. Arman doesn’t think twice about accepting Beau’s offer to spend a week at his retreat compound in the coastal hills of Big Sur. Arman doesn’t think twice about a lot of things—like how he’ll fit in with the compound’s wealthy guests or what it means to “shed the toxic influences of Western society in order to reach an enlightened state of personal agency.”
Or as Beau puts it, to evolve.
When the compound’s gates close, Beau’s program is anything but a straight path to self-improvement. Caught in a whirlwind of dubious morality, bizarre rituals, and incomprehensible encounters with a beautiful girl and a beguiling knife, Arman finds evolution feels less like change and more like the failure he’s always known. But when he’s pushed to test just how deep the knife will cut, failure is the least of his worries. There’s nothing safe about enlightenment.
But maybe that’s the point. Like Beau says—sometimes the greater good requires the smaller evil.
Customer Reviews
I just don’t GET it
I received an ARC of this book from Penguin First Reads in exchange for an honest review.
This was…. a strange book. I want to like it, but ultimately, I just don’t get it. What was the point?
Arman is kind of an outcast. He doesn’t fit in, he’s on all kinds of medications for ADD and anxiety whatnot. He meets this guy, Beau, who invites him to a “retreat”. A couple of sort-of friends come along as well, but otherwise it’s mostly old people.
Then Beau is murdered. Or kills himself. Or maybe he didn’t and Arman is just crazy. Now we spend half the book not sure what is real and what is not, and this is actually very cool. But… the end comes along and we’re left with more questions than answers.
I think people who like really philosophical mind bending books might be into this, but it was just too weird for me. Maybe reading it a second time knowing the ending would give more clues as to what the hell is actually happening in the earlier parts of the book, but I’m not going to waste my time doing that. I honestly only grabbed this book because I was pretty sure the “retreat” was really a cult (and it basically is) and that sort of fascinates me. In the end though, I wish I hadn’t bothered. I wasn’t left satisfied and I still don’t feel like I really know any of the characters.
I just don’t understand what the point of the story was. Not that every story needs to end with an earth shattering, mind opening purpose—I enjoy fluffy books as much as the next reader—but, at least knowing what the hell actually happened is sort of a must for me.
So would I recommend this book? No. Not really. There were some good parts, but overall I was left underwhelmed and without a sense of closure.