I’m fascinated by cults and immediately want to pick up a book that deals with them. Needless to say when I came across After We Were Stolen I knew I had to pick it up. Cheers to Barnes and Nobles for their earlier in the year deal on pre-orders as that is where I purchased my physical copy. And thank you sourcbook for my e-arc.

The books starts with a note from the author and I appreciated. It allowed me to prepare for some difficult topics that were addressed within the book. I had suspected that it would likely contain them due to the topic but having that background was helpful.

Having said that, this book flew by for me. It slowly peeled back the curtain on what was really taking place within the cult and demonstrated the debilitating effects it has once one leaves it. The main characters and the things suffered were heartbreaking. And yet they survived, albeit in very different ways. Human resilience is an incredible thing.

This is a debut novel and a good one in my opinion, particularly as it gave one enough clues along the way to make you suspect what took place and yet kept you wondering if that was correct. If you like debut novels and find the inner works of a cult interesting, then definitely pick this one.

I enjoy reading both fiction and nonfiction about cults. Is a cult book enthusiast a thing? If so, that’s me.

I enjoyed this enough and would give it a 3.5 rounded up to a 4 out of 5 stars. It was definitely a different twist and focus on typical cult stories about a girl and her cult brother trying to find their way in a society they’ve never known after a fire destroys their compound and kills most of their cult family. They escape, only to find they were abducted as children into the cult and there was at least one other survivor who knows the truth about what happened with the fire.

The description made it sound a little more interesting than it actually was. I just felt like there wasn’t much of a plot. I thought based on the description that there would be more searching for others that escaped from the cult and more secrets and excitement. The last half hour was probably where the most of that was.

𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝗪𝐄 𝗪𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐍 by debut author Brooke Beyfuss is a tough one for me to wrap my thoughts around. Parts I liked a lot and others made me cringe. To be fair, there was a note from the author at the beginning of the book that warned of tough topics around abuse of children. Had I not been warned, I may have stopped reading because the first 20% was rough. This is the story of two siblings, 19 year old Avery and 16 year old Cole, who escape their family “compound” when a fire breaks out and chaos ensues. This event marked the beginning of my favorite part of the book, as Avery and Cole flee to the woods and eventually find themselves in a city. Since the two have never known life outside their family home, they’re without any resources, terrified, and unprepared for life on their own.⁣
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I really enjoyed the close relationship between the siblings, and was a little frustrated with what felt like a harsh turn near the middle of this story. I think parts were a bit of a stretch, tugging at the limits of believability, but despite that, 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘞𝘦 𝘞𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘯 was a fast read and definitely made me think about children like Avery and Cole who are raised in situations that leave them unprepared for the real world. It may not happen a lot, but it still happens too often. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫⁣
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Thanks to @bookmarked for an ARC of #AfterWeWereStolen.

What a great debut! I’m not going to give a synopsis because the one that’s used to promote the book, in my opinion, is overly revealing. I wish it was scaled back so more of the story was left for the reader to discover along the way. This was a great read-interesting every step of the way and well written. I enjoyed the different parts, and was hesitant about that, would it be as good at the end as it was in the beginning? But it was. In fact, it could’ve kept going and I would’ve been happy to read even more about Avery and her story. This book is heavy, and very sad. Cole and Avery’s relationship and forced separation made me feel for them deeply. I find that with books where there is so much sadness and traumatic topics, they at times can be hard to read and get through because it feels like a sadness overlord. I didn’t feel that with this, it felt interesting and hopeful, not even to find out what “really” happened, just for Avery to find happiness and peace. Avery and all the characters were well developed and interesting, the story is so heavy but interesting and felt realistic to me. I do wish there was more at the end! Definitely check the trigger warnings for this- but I highly recommended. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free preview in exchange for an honest review.

Meh. This had promise but ultimately fell flat. The book never addresses the still missing cult members. Frustrating as a reader. Avery was pretty annoying as a main character. Zoe’s safe house didn’t seem so safe or secret. Many things just didn’t work for me here.

I was drawn to this book when I saw it was about survivors of a cult. Avery and Cole escape from an apocalypse preppers cult when a fire breaks out. In escaping, they never anticipate just how much their lives will change - possibly both for the good and bad.

Avery and Cole are picked up by police after stealing for necessity and it's discovered that they are both missing children taken years before from separate families. This means they will be separated and sent back to their respective families even though in their own minds they are the only family they have left. It's just another loss for both of them.

This book is actually a pretty brutal read in some places. Some of the things Avery was subjected to before they escaped were unimaginable. As for Cole, as her "sibling" to not be able to help her was also a painful kind of injury of its own. The emotional damage done to both of these young people was unimaginable. To make things even worse, once the public finds out they are alive, the curiosity about them is extreme. They are oddities in a way because they'd been taken and then raised to believe such "far-fetched" things in the general public's view.

It's an interesting book in that I've never thought of what a situation like this would be like. To be raised for a decade to believe your life is a certain way only to find out that it's been a complete lie. You'd feel so lost and alone and the fact that Avery and Cole were separated had to make it more difficult. However, for them to each move forward, it was probably necessary in the long run.

Even though this wasn't an easy read, it was definitely a good one. I'd like to thank NetGalley for this ARC. I chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is listed as an adult read, but I felt that it read more as a Young Adult novel.

The story was very dark and detailed. It's the sort of story that really happens, so I feel like readers will be invested in it. There was a twist at the end, but I saw it coming. I enjoyed reading it, but I wasn't completely blown away by it.

I needed a book to distract me , you see, I'm turning 37 this weekend and my massive ego cant take on even one more grey hair or wrinkle. I’m sticking with thrillers for the next week and I felt this one eyeballing me from the shelf so I picked her on up and gave her a little twirl around the room.

I think we enjoyed each other’s company.

I was instantly hooked with just the title. When I saw that I didn't recognize the author's name, I was even more intrigued. How did Brooke Beyfuss slip under my radar? I was definitely going to have to change that!

After We Were Stolen, is basically hypnotic if I had to use one word to describe it. I was instantly drawn into this dark world and it felt every bit as real as the coffee you drink. I was in a trance, I need to know what was going on and I wouldn't be able to stop myself until I finished.

There were zero bathroom breaks, there were zero snack breaks. My world was completely consumed and I could not function unless I was holding this book.

Yes, I am not lying when I tell you it was THAT good.

This is an intense psychological thriller that will take you on the ride of your life. I would not recommend anyone missing out on this tale that will just about kick the legs out from underneath you.

Buy the book, thank me later.

Big thank you to Brooke Beyfuss and Sourcebooks Landmark for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this jazzy little number before the big release!

This was a nearly perfect debut novel! Thank the author for a trigger warning because there are graphic traumatic experiences starting from the first chapter.

This is the story of Avery, a nineteen year old woman who was raised in a survivalist cult along with her 9 brothers and sisters and their parents. One night, she awakens to find the compound on fire and her bedroom door barricaded. She escapes through the window and finds one survivor, her brother Cole, the only family member who cared about her. With emergency workers on the property, the siblings decide to run away.

When they are arrested for shoplifting some days later, they discover that they were abducted as young children by the adults in the cult. Cole's family claims him, but Avery doesn't get that closure. Instead, she lives in a safe house, away from the press but not the police who are trying to piece everything together.

Who set the fire and why? Are there any other survivors? What memories are still being locked away in Avery's mind?

Through the strength of her friendship with Toby, another safe house resident, and the determination of the people running the house to keep her safe and help with her healing, Avery makes it through each day. What she discovers about her life and herself are heartbreaking.

This is not a feel good book, by any means. It is hopeful at times and downright deflating at others. Some important questions were left unanswered and I wished for more (and better) for Avery (and Cole. and Toby)

My thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

They haved lived in a survialist camp their whole lives, or so they thought. Avery is 19 and her greatest wish is to escape her family and the harshness of her everyday life. When waking to find their camp burning, Avery and her brother Cole escape, only to find themselves the only survivors of the fire. Using the skills taught them from birth, they settle into a "hand to mouth" life that still seems better than the one they escaped.

This life comes to a quick end when the teens are arrested for shoplifting food. Avery soon finds that her name is not Avery, her parents were not her parents and Cole is not her brother. She and Cole were both stolen as small children. At this point, Cole leaves Avery's life and the story moves on to recovery.

Brooke Beyfuss tells Avery's story with feeling, stirring the reader's emotions from anger to disbelief to sadness with skill. With a debut this good, she has set the bar pretty high for her next book.

📖 Earlier this week I had the privilege of reading this debut novel from BROOKE and what an emotional ride! I was quickly absorbed in this incredibly well-written story and these characters are going to stay with me a while even after reading the last page. 

🔥 The author tells the story of Avery and her parents and siblings who live on a compound as a member of a commune, where they are trained in survivalist methods. One night, there is a fire and she and her brother escape, but this only leads to more revelations for our main character as she starts to process what has happened, where she came from and how to find her footing as she begins her next chapter with the outside world. 

💭 I really appreciated how it gave insight into how the children were taught to fear the world outside the commune and pitted against each other during their time at the compound, as well as the emotional integration with the outside world after the escape.

Avery is 19 and lives with her twelve member family in a survivalist commune where her father and mother expect them to “prepare, endure, and thrive.” For the first part of the story we find her living mostly cast out in a tent by herself and treated horribly by her parents, especially her father. Her brother, Cole, is often the only one who visits and helps her.

When a fire destroys the entire compound, only Avery and Cole are survivors. They use their survival skills to fend for themselves until they are arrested for shoplifting. That’s when the story really changes. As it turns out, both Avery and Cole were stolen from their respective families when they were very young.

We see the aftermath of them getting found and how their families react. For Cole, his abduction was in the media for years but for Avery, very little seems to have changed. We follow Avery as she tries to deal with the upheaval of her life.

This story is very well-written and hard to read sometimes. There are some very serious subject matters throughout the book. The resilience of Avery is amazing but I wanted a better ending for Avery and Cole. It doesn’t end with a HEA - just like in real life it continues on.

Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for this eARC.

This was not what I was expecting.

I thought it would be more of a thriller/mystery and it was not.

It was very beautifully written but I felt like it was mislabeled and not for me.

TW: rape

When I first started reading this book, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to read it as it was leading to some dark moments. I'm glad I pushed through as it was a very interesting storyline and I enjoyed reading it. I'm a huge fan of true crime so the fact that the main character escaped from a cult that she wasn't aware she was part of was extremely intriguing to me. I felt it was realistic in the portrayal of never really leaving that type of trauma behind, but the hopeful tone at the end of the book was wonderful.

Fate must have finally been smiling on Avery and Cole. A fire tears through the doomsday cult compound they live on. Mother, Father, and their eight siblings perish, but Avery and Cole somehow escape. Once Avery spots people on site, she convinces Cole to run with her before anyone can ask them questions or tell them what to do. They are about to discover what is outside their small world.
They have been brainwashed to believe the world is ending and their family were the chosen few. Their life had been full of pain and suffering, though it is all that either of them knows. Avery had recently been “chosen” for a new role and I won't say what it is, but it was brutal and heartless and showed her parents' true colors( if they already weren't apparent). Soon, they will learn that everything they believed had been one lie after another, and the real world does not embrace them both with open arms.
Though most of the story takes place after the fire, be prepared to experience the brutal life that Cole and Avery endured through flashbacks. Especially Avery, as she was treated much worse than any of her other siblings. Father pitted them against each other with tragic results.
Not an easy read but I was so invested, hoping that these two could overcome everything that had been done to them. Told from Avery's POV, this book tore my heart out. Truly a book that brought out all the feels.

This is the first book I've ever read about a survivalist cult. It was dark, powerful, heartbreaking, complex, hopeful and at times a difficult read due to the subject matter. I'm glad that I read this book and loved how it opened my eyes to a topic I didn't know much about.

A very emotional and often times hard to read story. Avery and her brother Cole live with their parents and siblings in a survivalist doomsday cult. Life was hard for all of them, but was more difficult for Avery who was treated more harshly and made to live apart from the family in her own tent. She and Cole were especially close as he tried to make amends for her treatment by making her life a little less difficult. They were isolated from others, forced to endure hardship and loneliness. When a fire broke out in the home, this was Avery’s chance to escape from her parents. Along with Cole, who was several years younger, they try to make a go of it in an outside world that is completely unfamiliar. How will they survive on the streets? What will happen when they learn who they really are? I was drawn into Avery’s story and it was hard to stop turning the pages. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (paytonpuppy)

Wow this was a good book! I listened to the audio version and the narration was excellent! I was immediately drawn in to an interesting story and loved it all. I was sorry when it ended!!

Holy moly was I in for a ride with this book. The narrator hooked me within the first 5 mins of listening and then I just couldn't stop. I love a good cult story and this one didn't disappoint. I was so curious to hear about Avery's experiences in the cult and after she left. Never once was I bored. I will definitely be looking forward to more works by this author.

After We Were Stolen is a story of resilency and strength, even in the darkest days where everything feels lost and hopeless. When a fire at a cult compound breaks out, Avery and her brother Cole escape. For months they survive in the real world by stealing and sleeping wherever they can. When "found," they learn the family they thought they had was in reality a doomsday cult. Avery and Cole are torn apart when they learn they are not biologically related.

Brooke Beyfuss begins this story with a letter to the reader, warning the topics are dark. I found this to be thoughtful even though cults are synonous with abduction, rape, and abuse (all found in this book). And while the start of the book is about life in the compound, this cult story is truly more than just a day in the life. Its about discovering the truth. Beyfuss utilizes a the found family in multiple ways throughout the book. First through being "chosen" family within the cult and a second time in the shelter when Avery meets Toby (another child with his own survival story).

Its wonderful to read a debut book thats so thoroughly thoughtful. Beyfuss explores love, loss, grief, strength of the human character and rebirth. You find yourself rooting for Avery as she struggles to discover whats true and whats not. As in real life, traumatic events effect our memories and our choices. Averys path to healing is imperfect but she chooses life and growth.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark and Brooke Beyfuss for remarkable story of abduction and empowerment. This is a true survivor story you must read.