Seed - Lisa Heathfield

This is an enchanting tale of realization which beautifully describes the deception and dark secrets at the heart of a young girl's seemingly utopian world. Heathfield weaves so many layers into this piece of Young Adult fiction, creating mystery after mystery as the lies off of which Pearl (the protagonist) has lived her whole life start to unravel.

I was actually fortunate enough to meet Lisa Heathfield when she came to my school this year (on my birthday!) and it was absolutely amazing to speak to her about how

she writes. I was fascinated to learn that she doesn't actually write with a plan but just lets the story write itself in a way - something which I think is incredibly effective in this novel as it makes Pearl's story even more natural and authentic.

Seed is a book based upon a fifteen-year-old girl called Pearl who has lived in a cult her whole life. What seems to be a perfect childhood of picking food from the fields, running around woods making dens, and swimming in a lake is, in reality, the product of a dark heart at the centre of the cult. As someone reading the book from the 'outside', it is clear that Pearl does not live in a healthy environment, but it is all she has ever known. What the reader doesn't know, however, is how much danger Pearl and the others living there are in.

I love the tantalizing nature of the story because Pearl only starts to realize her perilous situation in stages as it takes her a while to be convinced that Papa S, whom she has trusted and revered her whole life, is actually the person of whom she must be most fearful. It is only when things start to go wrong and people she dearly loves get hurt that she finally realizes what the boy from the outside - the boy from the real, forbidden world - is saying is true.

Heathfield has a lovely style of writing whereby she makes it very easy for you to almost 'become' Pearl living in the cult, and the book just flows so nicely that you can't put it down. She manages to really express the mysterious tone of the book amongst all the happiness that is going on around it which also mirrors Pearl's realization of what is actually happening as the balance between happiness and mystery starts to slowly shift along with Pearl's perception of her life and the people in it.

It is an easy read, but this by no means makes it less powerful as this book teaches you how dangerous people can be when they are given power over others, and what is also shocking is the fact that the people living in the cult aren't aware of everyday things we take for granted - which of course you wouldn't be if you were never allowed out and were fed lies from the moment you were born.

I've never read anything with a storyline like this before and it truly is a riveting, page-turning read which I would recommend to everyone. It is devastating yet liberating at the same time; although everything Pearl knows to be true is revealed to be an evil deception, she gains truth and a whole new world.