The author presents a well-written and historically accurate novel. The location, time, and events provide a credible background for the nature of the plot. Through the first person narrative, the reader is confronted with the conflict from the first page and the action keeps rising and building in intensity with each page of Mercy's journal. The author uses foreshadowing quite well, allowing the reader to feel some hope that the Fiends will not eventually win and Mercy will be emotionally and physically well once again.

Farber develops three types of conflict, which are intertwined throughout. Person-against-self is shown when Mercy struggles against her feelings about her former captors whom she should hate but finds she is unable to hate. She overcomes the guilt for having admired the same people who killed her family. Only by forgiving them can she truly resist the Fiends. Her sessions with...