Official Review: The Faith by Amanda Tilbrook

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[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Faith" by Amanda Tilbrook.]

The Faith in this book is an ancient religion going back many centuries which worships the Mother Goddess as the source of all life. The main character, known as Victoria although this is not her real name, was not born into the faith and the story traces her introduction to the household at Wendover; her subsequent conversion to the Faith and her marriage into the Trevelyon 'Union'. During this time the family faces a number of tragedies and crises which it must overcome if it is to survive.

The Faithful do not believe in monogamous marriage and Victoria enters a union with several people of both sexes, which she seems to accept with amazing ease. In fact it appears to be more of a tribe than a marriage, with different roles assigned to different members and a definite sense of hierarchy.

The husbands and wives have joined the union for various reasons: love, physical attraction, emotional and psychological needs; but some have more questionable motives: greed, the desire for wealth and a luxurious lifestyle, and the feeling of duplicity is emphasised by the fact that the characters do not use their own names; they are given new ones when they enter the union.

Below the superficial simplicity of the Faith, we find a religion of immense inequality in which half the adherents live in abject poverty without even basic conveniences and sanitation, while the others live in obscene opulence, with titles, servants and all the trappings of great wealth. The source of this wealth, a multi million pound law firm, that is so important to sustain their odd lifestyle doesn't feature strongly in the story although several of the characters work there.

Many of the characters are disturbed or disturbing: Victoria herself is a very unstable person with extreme mood swings and a violent temper; others suffer from depression when they find they cannot handle a multi-partner marriage; and even some apparently affable characters can turn into thugs and cold blooded torturers when certain situations arise.


I didn't enjoy this story as much as I thought I was going to, although the technique of using flashbacks narrated by different characters was effective. However, even suspending belief and reading the story as a fantasy, I couldn't really relate to the characters and I wasn't sure where the author's voice was in this. There were also quite a few proofreading errors which spoilt the reading experience for me. Ms Tilbrook certainly explores some interesting and challenging ideas in her book and I have rated it three out of four stars.

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