A graphic memoir that documents Rose's experience growing up in a cult.Rose spent most of her childhood with her mother in the Temple, in San Diego, located down the road from the compound of Heaven's Gate, whose members took part in a mass suicide in 1997. Selectively mute, young Amy is under the control of the manipulative, abusive Leader. Chain-smoking and wearing a perpetual scowl, the Leader dislikes children, using them only when they are considered beneficial. Separated from her father and siblings, Amy sees little of her ailing mother, spending her days doing chores and caring for the children of potential members who arrive for free yoga classes. Cut off from most outside influences, Amy loves books and is delighted when she finds the Leader's secret library. When the Leader deems her too much trouble and gives her away to a kind, childless couple who attend yoga classes but don't live at the Temple, Amy experiences the outside world-and the public library-for the first time. Finally, as an adult, she makes sense of her past with the benefit of hindsight. Her journey is harrowing, filled with moments of acute misery juxtaposed against flashes of unabashed joy. Lee's black-and-white manga-styled art is dazzling, with keenly detailed facial expressions, adding evocative depth to the story. Because the story is told mainly through a child's perspective, some details (what illness Amy's mother had, why her father never came for her) are omitted. All characters present White.Insightful and riveting. (Graphic memoir. 10-14)

In the final panels of this gripping graphic novel memoir, Rose defines the titular phrase as “an astronomical term for when something is hidden from view.” For Rose, the term is all-encompassing when applied to her childhood being raised and largely neglected in the Temple, a cult commune in San Diego, where she is cut off from the world. Since her mother is sick and requires a lot of rest, Rose spends most of her time with the Temple’s acerbic and emotionally manipulative leader. Rose feels most at peace when she’s reading, and she delights in finding Leader’s secret library. But after deeming Rose “too stupid. Or just corrupted,” Leader sends her home with Jeanie and Derek, Temple members who reside off-site and who become her adoptive parents. With them, she experiences the outside world—going to grocery stores, learning how to woodwork, and visiting the public library. Lee’s uncomplicated, thinly lined b&w illustrations keep the characters and their emotions front and center. Rose and Estrada (the Student Ambassador series) imbue young Rose’s harrowing story with emotional heft by navigating heavy themes involving emotional abuse. Ages 10–14. (May)