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The Cresswell Plot by Eliza Wass
- Publisher: Disney-Hyperion < Disney Books
- Genre: Mystery/Thriller
- Audience: Young Adult
- Pages: 272 (paperback)
Castella Cresswell and her five siblings—Hannan, Caspar, Mortimer, Delvive, and Jerusalem—know what it’s like to be different. For years, their world has been confined to their ramshackle family home deep in the woods of upstate New York. They abide by the strict rule of God, whose messages come directly from their father. Slowly, Castley and her siblings start to test the boundaries of the laws that bind them. But, at school, they’re still the freaks they’ve always been to the outside world. Marked by their plain clothing. Unexplained bruising. Utter isolation from their classmates. That is, until Castley is forced to partner with the totally irritating, totally normal George Gray, who offers her a glimpse of a life filled with freedom and choice. Castley’s world rapidly expands beyond the woods she knows so well and the beliefs she once thought were the only truths. There is a future waiting for her if she can escape her father’s grasp, but Castley refuses to leave her siblings behind. Just as she begins to form a plan, her father makes a chilling announcement: the Cresswells will soon return to their home in heaven. With time running out on all of their lives, Castley must expose the depth of her father’s lies. The forest has buried the truth in darkness for far too long. Castley might be their last hope for salvation.
“Sometimes love was a spell people put you under to keep you from seeing who they really were.“
the cresswell plot
I have very conflicting feelings about The Cresswell Plot. The overarching feeling is how strange and disturbing and weird this entire story was. But below that are the realizations that this was actually strangely compelling and surprisingly atmospheric.
The Cresswell Plot is a little difficult to categorize. It’s a young adult… domestic mystery/thriller? Horror? It’s not in the realm of the typical young adult novel, and certainly doesn’t fit snugly into the genre umbrella that falls under YA.
The novel is told from Castella Cresswell’s POV, but the plot follows the six Cresswell siblings as they struggle to abide by the strict rules their father places on their household. The father, whom claims to act out the will of God.
The family dynamics within The Cresswell Plot is arguably this book’s greatest strength.
The atmosphere and intrigue is definitely a high for the novel, and readers are put in a near-constant state of tension. Just as the Cresswell siblings are tip-toeing around the wrath of their father, the reader is feeling this same apprehension.
It is the weirdness of it all that might have pushed this story a little too far for me, personally.
For starters, their father claims that all of his children are meant to marry each other, and they’ve been paired off nearly their entire lives. So for Castella, she’s always been told she’s going to end up with Caspar. Though she vaguely knows that romantic sibling relationships are not socially acceptable and are considered wrong by others, her father has done such a thorough job of manipulating the family that she truly accepts It, and at points she romanticizes it.
While the psychological aspect of the depths and scope of her father’s manipulativeness, persuasiveness, and conditioning is actually very intriguing and fascinating, I found myself too disturbed by this aspect to be able to let myself really enjoy the story.
As much tension as this book had, it didn’t really have much depth in terms of characters, emotionality, or complexity of plot.
The plot was pretty straight forward. You could tell where it was headed at all times, and the only intense aspect of it was the tension on when her father would snap next.
The characters, however, weren’t very well developed. They remained flat for much of the story and even our protagonist, Castella, never really got her due diligence in terms of characterization.
Due to the short length of the novel, the plot had to happen pretty quickly, and because of that, not only did the characters suffer, but the emotionality of the characters and the story did as well. The characters were hard, if impossible, to really connect to, and because of that, it was nearly impossible to really be able to feel or sympathize with the emotions of Castella or her siblings.
Overall, this was a weird one, and just an okay one. In the end, I think a little too odd to go out of my way to recommend, or really claim to like. I think… I’m just a little disturbed and a lot of WTF.
Tropes, triggers, & other components FEATURED
- Mystery to solve
- Gaslighting, manipulation
- Religious delusions
- Domestic abuse, murder
- Single POV, first person
OFFICIAL rating
The Cresswell Plot
The Cresswell Plotsimilar titles to the cresswell plot
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Let’s Chat in the Comments!
What is your first thought when you see a book is below 300 pages? Are you unbiased to length, or does anything under 300 (or 400 or 500 even) immediately strike you with wariness? On another note, how weird is too weird for you? Do you have limits, or are you willing to try out anything? What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever read, and what did you rate it?
