17-year-old Minnow Bly survived growing up in a cult, but her hands did not. She wound up in a hospital, and when she recovered, she went with her stumps to a juvenile justice facility. When the girls that she met in juvie asked her what happened, she responded, "My father cut them off with a hatchet."

When the girl was five years old, her father met a man who dubbed himself The Prophet. Before she knew it, her family had moved into the wilderness with several other families. They lived in ramshackle housed in "The Community," as it was called. There never seemed to be enough to eat or enough warmth to go around and there was a stark lack of basic necessities. Most Kevinians did everything that The Prophet ordered them to do, without so much as a whimper. Parents beat their children with tree branches that were as thick as forearms.

Not surprisingly, Minnow was not entranced with such a lifestyle. Blessed or cursed with a nonconformist streak, she met Jude, who lived in a nearby settlement. The teens had much in common, and soon they commenced a fledgling relationship. Of course, disapproval followed from both sides. 

Then, Minnow's life took a startling turn. One day, The Prophet announced that he wished to take Minnow as an additional wife. Hell loomed intolerably before the girl, and she incessantly plotted ways to escape such a devastating existence... 

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes

This was a fascinating and morbid glimpse into the brutal world of religious cults, replete with violence and murder. The author's alternation of past and present gives the book a dreamy, surreal feel.

Stephanie Oakes' web site

Books about cults

Books about juvenile justice